Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various usually domestic containers made of pottery, metal, or glass, as.
  • noun A round, fairly deep cooking vessel with a handle and often a lid.
  • noun A short round container for storing or serving food.
  • noun A coffeepot.
  • noun A teapot.
  • noun Such a container and its contents.
  • noun A potful.
  • noun A large drinking cup; a tankard.
  • noun A drink of liquor contained in such a cup.
  • noun An artistic or decorative ceramic vessel of any shape.
  • noun A flowerpot.
  • noun Something, such as a chimney pot or chamber pot, that resembles a round cooking vessel in appearance or function.
  • noun A trap for eels, other fish, or crustaceans, typically consisting of a wicker or wire basket or cage.
  • noun The total amount staked by all the players in one hand in cards.
  • noun The area on a card table where stakes are placed.
  • noun A shot in billiards or related games intended to send a ball into a pocket.
  • noun Informal A common fund to which members of a group contribute.
  • noun Informal A large amount.
  • noun Informal A potshot.
  • noun Informal A potbelly.
  • noun Informal A potty or toilet.
  • intransitive verb To place or plant in a pot.
  • intransitive verb To preserve (food) in a pot.
  • intransitive verb To cook in a pot.
  • intransitive verb To shoot (game) for food rather than for sport.
  • intransitive verb Informal To shoot with a potshot.
  • intransitive verb Informal To win or capture; bag.
  • intransitive verb Games To hit (a ball) into a pocket.
  • intransitive verb Informal To take a potshot.
  • intransitive verb To make or shape objects from clay, as on a potter's wheel.
  • noun Marijuana.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To deceive.
  • To put into pots.
  • To preserve in pots, usually in the form of paste and often with high seasoning: as, potted meats or lobster.
  • To stew; cook in a pot as a stew: as, to pot pigeons.
  • To plant or set in pots: as, to pot plants.
  • To put in casks for draining: as, to pot sugar by taking it from the cooler and placing it in hogsheads with perforated heads, from which the molasses percolates.
  • To shoot; bring down by shooting; bag: as, to pot a rabbit, a turkey, or an enemy; hence, to catch; secure: as, to pot an heiress.
  • To cap. See to cap verses, under cap, verb
  • To manufacture, as pottery or porcelain; especially, to shape and fire, as a preliminary to the decoration.
  • To drink; tipple.
  • To shoot at an enemy or at game; especially, to shoot to kill.
  • noun A Danish liquid measure equal to .212 gallons.
  • noun In poker, a jack-pot; a pool formed by equal contributions from all the players before the deal.
  • noun In geology: The earthy or consolidated material found in a pot-hole.
  • noun A pot-like cavity in rock, which contains earthy matter.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English pott, from Vulgar Latin *pottus.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly a shortened form of Mexican Spanish potiguaya ("marijuana leaves") or potaguaya ("cannabis leaves") or potación de guaya literally ‘drink of grief’, supposedly denoting a drink of wine or brandy in which marijuana buds were steeped.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pot, potte, from Old English pott ("a pot"), from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot”), from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a type of vessel”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pot ("pot"), Dutch pot ("pot"), Low German Pott ("pot"), German Pott ("pot"), Swedish pott ("pot"), Icelandic pottur ("tub, pot"). Cognate to Albanian poç ("vase, pot").

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  • 10 oz glass, usually of beer.

    February 9, 2007

  • Top in reverse.

    November 3, 2007

  • In glassmaking, a fire clay container in which batch is fused and kept molten. The glassworker gathers glass directly from the pot.

    November 9, 2007