If you give a store or business your support (financial or otherwise) as a customer or client, you are giving them your patronage. Great philanthropists are often known for their patronage, or financial support, of the arts.
In the days of classical art, composers like Bach or painters like Michelangelo were supported by patrons, whose patronage, or financial support paid the artists' ways. Patronage is still an important part of our world, but you have to be careful: If your senator is accused of political patronage, people are accusing that senator of exchanging jobs or other favors in return for political support. This is not a good thing.
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the business given to a commercial establishment by its customers
be a regular customer or client of
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the act of providing approval and support
support by being a patron of
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a communication that indicates lack of respect by patronizing the recipient
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