Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A thick soup or stew of vegetables and sometimes meat.
- n. Archaic Porridge.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A dish consisting of meat boiled to softness in water, usually with vegetables; meat-broth; soup.
- n. Oatmeal or other porridge.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A kind of food made by boiling vegetables or meat, or both together, in water, until soft; a thick soup or porridge.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a stew of vegetables and (sometimes) meat
- n. thick (often creamy) soup
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman, Old French potage, from pot + -age. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English potage, from Old French, from pot, pot; see potiche. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And, when you come to think of it, Jacob's mess of pottage is the most expensive dish on record.”
“That's a popular delicacy, much more appealing to some tastes than "pottage" - especially when it is said to be a "mess".”
“-- French Tr. [34] Literally the passage would run, "Feed me, I pray thee, with that red, that read," the word pottage being understood. "the repetition of the epithet, and the omission of the substantive, indicated the extreme haste and eagerness of the asker.”
“Esau probably thought the pottage was a good exchange, too, but look how that turned out.”
“Here the common mode of using it is to cut it in small squares, and boil it in the mandioc pottage, which is the principal food of the poorer inhabitants and the slaves.”
Journal of a Voyage to Brazil And Residence There During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823
“But beware of insulting the mess of pottage, which is as respectable as when newly out of the pot.”
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455 Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852
“[01: 36] matociquala: If it wasn't stew, it would just be pottage, which is stew with oats in it.”
“Culinary education nowadays tells that me that peasants ate beer, beans, peas and "pottage" which was basically a soup made of everything you have.”
“At the edge of the fire was a cooking pot, just as there would be in any ordinary household; and, judging by the smell, it contained the same kind of pottage as everyone else ate — vegetables boiled with meat bones and herbs.”
“Still oftener, however, they are boiled, and their juices eaten in a kind of pottage with millet in it, being the same as the Sclavonian and Polish _cachat_, the use of which extends as far west as the Adriatic, while on the southern side of the Caucasus, even to”
Life of Schamyl And Narrative of the Circassian War of Independence Against Russia
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pottage’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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traipsin' 'long through dis 'ear book...
Words which are either entirely new to me or;
Words which I comprehend generally but would prefer a more precise definition.
venality, seigneurial, mendicant, perforce, manse, glebe, trenchant, saw, obstreperous, profligate, dissipation, galliard and 176 more...
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Oh them words, them words
My fancies, my cudgels.
liquescent, ferly, lamia, basilisk, trigon, fantast, stirp, tristesse, enfleurage, stemma, formicary, lacrimation and 346 more...
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amber words
amber words is the term I use for words that are all but fossilized, in the sense that their use is always in the context of a single expression. Examples include caboodle, dudgeon, umbrage
sanctum, akimbo, amok, riddance, druthers, trove, caboodle, immemorial, blithering, dudgeon, swaddling, askance and 110 more...
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Into the mix
A medley of mixtures, mostly ones where the constituents are still distinct. I tagged kinds of stew.
mixture, commixture, admixture, intermixture, intermingling, commingling, mingling, marriage, union, integration, syncretion, permutation and 129 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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Words I learned whilst slogging throu...
Ivanhoe is a book by Sir Walter Scott. It was written in 1819, is set in 12th-century England, and is an example of historical fiction.
murrain, voluptuary, conventual, jennet, palfrey, mitre, obdurate, banderole, baldric, fetlock, panoply, obeisance and 48 more...
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wilde
prudery, milieu, mephitic, putrefaction, equerry, carnelian, hydropic, antithetical, antinomian, facile, laburnum, tussore and 67 more...
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JWL's Words
fray, beige, infirm, gloat, razz, feist, gallow, stronghold, strut, spurt, impound, masculine and 47 more...
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XX-age
ullage, barrage, scrimmage, cribbage, message, baggage, frottage, byddage, piccage, staffage, slippage, tonnage and 27 more...
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Mirandala's Words
serendipitous, jejune, braggadocio, flummox, toddy, crumpet, strumpet, pottage, steampunk, pioneer, mellifluous, solipsistic and 6 more...
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More gruel?
gruel, porridge, oatmeal, grits, hominy, samp, mush, brose, burgoo, maypo, frumenty, stirabout and 29 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pottage.
milosrdenstvi Let him be to me a spirit. A message, a thought, a sincerity, a glance from him, I want, but not news, nor pottage. I can get politics, and chat, and neighbourly conveniences from cheaper companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal, and great as nature itself?
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Friendship" Jun 6, 2009
bilby Nay. Oct 6, 2008
sionnach Don't sell your birthright on eBay to some dude called Jacob, just for a mess of pottage. Jan 17, 2008