ˈpiss-pot Not now in polite use.
[f. piss n. + pot n. So early mod.F. pissepot (1544).]
a. A vessel, usually of earthenware, for urine; a chamber-pot.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 267/1 Iurdone, pyssepotte. 1529 More Suppl. Soulys ii. Wks. 195/1 And it happen to raine, out poure they pispottes vpon his hed. 1621 Fletcher Wild Goose Chase ii. ii, May be, she knows you, And will fling a piss-pot at you. 1743 Phil. Trans. XLII. 614 They hold a Piss-pot over the Womens Heads whilst in Labour, thinking it to promote hasty Delivery. 1942 E. Paul Narrow St. xxix. 269 They had wandered into a slum where frequently the housewives dumped pisspots out of the windows. 1948 E. Pound Pisan Cantos (1949) lxxx. 104 His helmet is used for a pisspot. 1972 Daily Tel. 5 May 12/3 His low-life characters empty the occasional piss-pot and there is a fine flamboyant parade of pretty whores. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Apr. 417/4 Malcolm [Lowry]..reached the abyss of alcoholic degradation, drinking in prison out of a pisspot. |
| attrib. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. iii, A beggar, a slave that never drunk out of better than piss-pot metal in his life! 1619 H. Hutton Follies Anat. (Percy Soc.) 11 A sowre pis-pot visage. |
† b. transf. A nickname for a medical man:
cf. next.
Obs.| 1593 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. Wks. (Grosart) II. 236 Had phisition Iohn liu'd,..a sinode of Pispots would haue concluded, that Pierce Pennilesse should be confounded without repriue. 1600 Dr. Dodypoll i. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 103 A fustie Potticarie..with his fustian drugges, attending your pispot worship. 1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §24. 18 Which..sheweth the presumption of Pispot Doctors. |