pate definition |Dictionary.com

A soft, smooth, thick mixture or material, as:
1. A smooth viscous mixture, as of flour and water or of starch and water, that is used as an adhesive for joining light materials, such as paper and cloth.
2. The moist clay or clay mixture used in making porcelain or pottery. Also called pâte.
3. A smooth dough of water, flour, and butter or other shortening, used in making pastry.
4. A food that has been pounded until it is reduced to a smooth creamy mass: anchovy paste.
5. A sweet doughy candy or confection: rolled apricot paste.
6. A hard, brilliant, lead-containing glass used in making artificial gems.
7. A gem made of this glass. Also called strass.
1. A hard, brilliant, lead-containing glass used in making artificial gems.
2. A gem made of this glass. Also called strass.

v. past·ed, past·ing, pastes

v. tr.

To cause to adhere by or as if by applying paste.
To cover with something by or as if by pasting: He pasted the wall with burlap. The wall is pasted with splotches.
Computer Science To insert (text, graphics, or other data) into a document or file.

v. intr.
Computer Science To insert text, graphics, or other data into a document or file.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin pasta, from Greek, barley-porridge, from neuter pl. of pastos, sprinkled, salted, from passein, to sprinkle; see kwēt- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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pate (pāt) Pronunciation Key
n.

The human head, especially the top of the head: a bald pate.
The mind or brain.

[Middle English.]

pat'ed (pā'tĭd) adj.

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pâte (pät) Pronunciation Key
n. See paste¹.

[French, from Old French paste, paste; see paste¹.]

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pâ·té (pä-tā') Pronunciation Key
n.

A meat paste, such as pâté de foie gras.
A small pastry filled with meat or fish.

[French, from Old French paste, paste, pâté; see paste¹.]

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pate (1)

"top of the head," 1197, perhaps a shortened form of O.Fr. patene or M.L. patena, both from L. patina "pan, dish."

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pate (2)

"paste," 1706, from Fr. pâté, from O.Fr. paste, earlier pastée, from paste (see paste (n.)). Pâté de foie gras (1827) is lit. "pie of fat liver;" originally served in a pastry (as still in Alsace), the phrase now chiefly in Eng. with ref. to the filling.

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