pattern

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holding pattern

1. Literally, of an aircraft, a continuous, generally circular flight pattern over an airport, as while awaiting clearance to land. Due to a security breach in the airport, our plane was kept in a holding pattern for nearly 45 minutes.

2. A state or condition of inactivity or stagnancy, leading to little or no change, advancement, or development. Relying solely on derivative sequels, many feel that the video game company has been in a holding pattern in recent years

See also: holding, pattern

in a holding pattern

1. Literally, of an aircraft, in a continuous, generally circular flight pattern over an airport, as while awaiting clearance to land. Due to a security breach in the airport, our plane was kept in a holding pattern for nearly 45 minutes.

2. In a state or condition of inactivity or stagnancy, leading to little or no change, advancement, or development. Relying solely on derivative sequels, many feel that the video game company has been in a holding pattern in recent years.

See also: holding, pattern

pattern (something) after (something else)

To use something as the template or model for the way in which something else is created or developed. The mayor's ambitious social security plan is patterned after a similar system already in place in Sweden. You can pattern your lesson plans after ones from previous teachers.

See also: after, pattern

pattern (something) on (something else)

To use something as the template or model for the way in which something else is created or developed. The mayor's ambitious social security plan is patterned after a similar system already in place in Sweden. You can pattern your lesson plans after ones from previous teachers.

See also: on, pattern

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

pattern something after something

to use something as an example or model when making something. I patterned my house after one I saw in England. She wanted to pattern her coat after her mother's.

See also: after, pattern

pattern something on something

to use something as a model for something else. Try to pattern your sales speech on Jane's. She's got it just right. We patterned our approach on Bob's.

See also: on, pattern

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

pattern on

or pattern after

v.

To form, develop, or found something on the basis of something else; fashion something after something else: The country patterned its legal system on French civil law. These lesson plans are patterned after the ones I learned at graduate school.

See also: on, pattern

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.