1. wooden shoes or overshoes with thick soles, worn to raise the feet above wet or muddy ground
Usage: historical; archaic

Examples

• The medieval peasants wore pattens to keep their feet dry in the muddy streets.
• She strapped on her wooden pattens before venturing into the wet courtyard.
• The museum displayed a collection of 18th-century pattens made of carved wood.
• Pattens were essential footwear for walking through unpaved roads in earlier centuries.
• The clicking sound of pattens on cobblestones echoed through the narrow alley.
• Women of the Tudor period often wore pattens over their regular shoes for protection.