Definition of: patron

(pā′trən) noun
1. One who protects, fosters, countenances, or supports some person or thing; a protector or benefactor.
2. A regular customer.
3. A saint regarded as the peculiar protector of some special person, country, cause, etc.; a tutelary saint; also, the canonized founder of a religious order.
4. In Greek and Roman religion, a tutelary deity; protector of some city, cause, occupation, etc.
5. One in the position of father, guardian, or helper, as one who sponsors a concert or charitable entertainment, one who champions a cause.
6. In ancient Rome, a master who freed his slave and sustained toward him a legal relation analogous to that of father. [<OF patrun <L patronus protector <pater, -tris father]
—pa′tron·al adjective