patch up

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patch up (third-person singular simple present patches up, present participle patching up, simple past and past participle patched up)

1. (idiomatic) To repair by adding a patch.

   I needed to patch up my trousers after ripping them on the brambles.

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To mend quickly.
3. (idiomatic, figuratively) To repair relations; to improve relations.

   You need to patch things up with your sister after that horrible argument.

   • 1955 February, T. B. Sands, “The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 79:

     But capital was proving difficult to raise; rumours were in the air that the G.W.R. and L.S.W.R. were about to patch up their quarrel, and the people of Southampton, who twelve months earlier had staged a torch-light procession to celebrate the passing of the D.N.S.R. Act, were increasingly loath to part with their cash.

   • 1983, James C. H. Shen, “Signs of Change”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally‎, Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books Ltd., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 51:

     Nixon was very curious about developments on the Chinese mainland. He particularly wanted to know whether the Vice-Premier saw any possibility of Peking and Moscow patching up their feud in the foreseeable future. Chiang Ching-kuo answered in the negative.

4. (obsolete, printing) To overlay.