▪ I. pottle1
(ˈpɒt(ə)l)
Forms: 4–5 potel, 4–7 -ell, 5 -elle, 5–7 pottel(l, 6– pottle.
[ME. potel, a. OF. potel (1308 in Godef.) a little pot, a measure, f. pot pot n.1 + -el, -le 2.]
1. A measure of capacity for liquids (also for corn and other dry goods, rarely for butter), equal to two quarts or half a gallon: now abolished.
| a 1300 Sat. People Kildare xvii. in E.E.P. (1862) 155 Hail be ȝe brewesters wiþ ȝur galuns Potels and quarters ouer al þe tounes. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 59 Ye Alderman schal haue..ij galons of ale; & ye dene a potel. 14.. Tretyce in W. of Henley's Husb. (1890) 54 Þe thirde parte off a potell off butter. 1465 Cov. Lt. Bk. (E.E.T.S.), The wardens shall make a stryke, halfe stryke, hope & halfe hope, gallon & potell & quarte, the mesurs to be selyd & delyuered to the sellers of oton-meele. 1486 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 16 A pottell oyle for the calkers vj{supd}. 1571 Digges Pantom. iii. xii. S j, To lerne howe many pottles or gallons is conteyned in that great vessell. 1602 Plat Delightes for Ladies Recipe lii, Take a pottle of damsons. 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. 697 Containing each of them tenne pottels or thereabout, foure or fiue gallons. 1625 in Naworth Househ. Bks. (Surtees) 229 One potell of canary seck. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 99 Little hony at that time of the year is ordinarily to bee had; a quart, perhaps a pottle, and this is a liberal portion. 1796 H. Glasse Cookery xxi. 326 Take a quarter of a pound of hartshorn and put to it a pottle of water. 1869 Hazlitt Eng. Prov. 473 Who'd keep a cow, when he may have a pottle of milk for a penny? |
b. A pot or vessel containing a pottle, or of about this capacity.
| 1698 Thoresby in Phil. Trans. XX. 311, I have..lately procur'd a Roman Pottle from Aldbrough, which is of the Red Clay. 17.. Anc. Poems, etc. (Percy Soc.) 180 We'll drink it out of the pottle, my boys, Here's a health to the barley-mow! 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. (1849) 341 Then the Van Grolls, of Anthony's Nose, who carried their liquor in fair round little pottles. 1888 Stevenson Black Arrow 24 By his elbow stood a pottle of spiced ale. |
c. ellipt. A pottle of wine or other liquor; hence, drink, liquor.
| a 1700 in Roxb. Ball. (1874) II. 258 Yet, scrambling up, a Drunkard feels no pain, But cries ‘Sirrah, hoy! t'other pottle againe’. 1850 S. Dobell Roman vii, I do not learn..That you shall..drink your pottle weaker at the wake. |
2. A small wicker or ‘chip’ basket,
esp. one of a conical form used for strawberries.
| 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 2 June Let. i, She sent us a pottle of fine strawberries. 1847 C. A. Johns Forest Trees Gt. Brit. I. 341 The neat-looking, but very inconvenient, basket for holding strawberries, called a pottle, is made of Beech. 1880 Disraeli Endym. 459 One never sees a pottle of strawberries now. |
3. Name of a children's game.
| 1822 Southey Lett. (1856) III. 334, I have as little inclination to write verses as to play at pottle or whip a top. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
pottle bottle,
pottle draught,
pottle pitcher;
pottle-bellied a., pot-bellied;
pottle-bodied a., stout, corpulent;
pottle-crowned a. (of a hat), having a crown like a small pot;
pottle-deep a., of the depth of a pottle. See also
pottle-pot.
| 1777 Horæ Subsecivæ 337 (E.D.D.) *Pottle-bellied. 1825 Jennings Dial. W. Eng. 61 Pottle-bellied, potbellied. |
| 1842 Tennyson Will Waterproof xvii, He saw A something-*pottle-bodied boy That knuckled at the taw. |
| 1392–3 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 154, iiij paribus *potel botels. 1459 Invent. in Paston Lett. I. 488, j. payre of potell botellys of one sorte. a 1648 Digby Closet Open. (1677) 30 Pour this clear liquor into pottle-bottles of glass. |
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 56 Rodorigo..To Desdemona hath to night Carrows'd Potations, *pottle-deepe. 1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 124 The life of a Lord..consists principally of his amours, his pottle deep potations, his politics, and his—hazards. |
| 1639 Mayne City Match iii. iii, I shall be glad To give thanks for you, sir, in *pottle-draughts. |
| a 1529 Skelton El. Rummyng 402 Another..brought a *pottel pycher, A tonnel, and a bottell. |
Hence
ˈpottled a., placed in a pottle;
† savouring of the pottle or wine-cup (
obs.).
| 1568 T. Howell Arb. Amitie 23 As potled tales they prate aloft, so thende will proue but vaine. 1845 Eliza Cook Old Cries ii, ‘Old Cries’, ‘old cries’..From ‘Haut⁓boys’, pottled in the sun, To the loud wish that cometh when The tune of midnight ‘waits’ is done. |
▪ II. † pottle2 Obs. (See
quot.)
| 1689 R. Cox Hist. Irel. i. Expl. Index, Pottle of Land is twelve Acres. |
▪ III. † pottle3 erron. variant of
bottle n.3| 1733 Fielding Tom Thumb ii. ix, The unhappy sempstress once, they say, Her needle in a pottle, lost, of hay. 1849 James Woodman xvii, ‘And we are to set to find a needle in the pottle of hay’, replied his companion. |