Patronship

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Patronage, the act or especially the formalized state of being a backer or supporter (of something). countable, uncommon, uncountable

    "Mrs. Isabelle Field Jddson has succeeded to the patronship of the late Cyrus W. Field and Mr. Charles S. Shepard to the patronship of the late Edward M. Shepard. Dr. Walter B. James has been elected patron of the Museum in recognition of his contributions ..."

  2. 2
    Synonym of patroonship. countable, uncountable

    "The Van Pere patronship at Berbice Another seventeenth-century Dutch colony in Guiana that had significance for the slave trade was located on the Berbice River. [...] the colony [...] was allowed to continue as a family patronship."

Example

More examples

"Mrs. Isabelle Field Jddson has succeeded to the patronship of the late Cyrus W. Field and Mr. Charles S. Shepard to the patronship of the late Edward M. Shepard. Dr. Walter B. James has been elected patron of the Museum in recognition of his contributions ..."

Etymology

From patron + -ship. Piecewise doublet of patroonship.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.