oilpatch

English

Alternative forms

• oil patch, oil-patch

Etymology

From oil +‎ patch.

Noun

oilpatch (plural oilpatches)

1. A patch or puddle of oil.

   Near-synonyms: oil spot, oil slick

   • 2002, Martin Legassick, Armed Struggle and Democracy: The Case of South Africa, page 24:

     This minority establishes itself at the most vulnerable zone of the national territory, and then slowly spreads like an oilpatch, propagating itself in concentric ripples through the peasant masses, to the smaller towns, and finally to the capital.

2. (informal) An oil and gas producing region; (metonymically) the oil and gas industry.

   Like many men of that era and region, he wandered into the oilpatch and worked as a roustabout for a while.

   • 1959 November 16, The Billboard, page 50:

     "Texas Oil Patch Songs": [...] Willet [...] sings a dozen of his own songs having to do with oil workers [...]

   • 2005, Martin S. Raymond, William L. Leffler, Oil & Gas Production in Nontechnical Language:

     Fracturing the formation in the lingo of the oil patch is to perform a frac job.

   • 2008 February 26, Edmonton Sun:

     "Alberta won't plug oilpatch"

Related terms

• oiler
• oily

 

Translations

oil-and-gas industry

• Russian: нефтяна́я промы́шленность f (neftjanája promýšlennostʹ), нефтепро́м m (neftepróm)