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.

  • noun A pit; a hole; especially, a deep hole scooped out by the eddies of a river.
  • noun A vessel of earth, iron, brass, or other metal, usually of circular section and in shape rather deep than broad, employed for domestic and other purposes.
  • noun An earthen vessel, often for holding something distinctively specified; a jar or jug: as, a flower-pot; a cream-pot.
  • noun A drinking-vessel; a vessel containing a specified quantity of liquor, usually a quart or a pint; a mug.
  • noun The contents of a pot; that which is cooked in a pot; specifically, the quantity contained in a drinking-pot, generally a quart (in Guernsey and Jersey, about 2 quarts). A pot of butter was by statutes of Charles II. made 14 pounds.
  • noun Stoneware: a trade-term.
  • noun In sugar manufacturing, an earthen mold used in refining; also, a perforated cask in which sugar is placed for drainage of the molasses.
  • noun In founding, a crucible.
  • noun In glass manufacturing, the crucible in which the frit is melted. Those used for glass of fine quality, such as flint-glass, are closed to guard against impurities.
  • noun The metal or earthenware top of a chimney; a chimney-pot.
  • noun A size of writing-paper whose original water-mark is said to have been a pot. The smallest sheets measure 15½ x 12½ inches. Also spelled pott.
  • noun In fishing: The circular inclosed part of a pound-net, otherwise called the bowl, pound, or crib.
  • noun A hollow vessel for trapping fish; a lobster-pot.
  • noun In card-playing: The aggregate stakes, generally placed together in the center of the table; the pool.
  • noun In faro, the name given to the six-, seven-, and eight-spots in the lay-out.

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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Examples

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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