1. patronage - Noun
2. patronage - Verb
Special countenance or support; favor, encouragement, or aid, afforded to a person or a work; as, the patronage of letters; patronage given to an author.
Business custom.
The right of nomination to political office; also, the offices, contracts, honors, etc., which a public officer may bestow by favor.
The right of presentation to church or ecclesiastical benefice; advowson.
To act as a patron of; to maintain; to defend.
Source: Webster's dictionaryLabour in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor. Daniel Webster
Each of the Arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of a Muse, no god being found worthy to preside over them. Eliza Farnham
There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. George Washington
All appointments hurt. Five friends are made cold or hostile for every appointment; no new friends are made. All patronage is perilous to men of real ability or merit. It aids only those who lack other claims to public support. Rutherford B. Hayes
The House of Lords must go - not be reformed, not be replaced, not be reborn in some nominated life-after-death patronage paradise, just closed down, abolished, finished. Neil Kinnock
But however mysterious is nature, however ignorant the doctor, however imperfect the present state of physical science, the patronage and the success of quacks and quackeries are infinitely more wonderful than those of honest and laborious men of science and their careful experiments. P. T. Barnum