▪ I. pote, n.1 Obs. exc. dial.
See also poot n.
[Connected with pote v.]
1. A stick or rod for poking, thrusting, or stirring. † a. In ME. plouh-pote, perh. the same as plough-bat (plough n.1 8) or plough-staff.
But the various readings, and the frequent variant plough-foot, leave the meaning doubtful.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 96 Mi plouh-pote [v.r. plow-bat] schal be my pyk, and posshen atte [v.r. putte at þe] Rootes, And helpe my coltre to kerue, and close þe vorwes [1377 B. vi. 105 My plow-fote [2 MSS. plow-pote] shal be my pyk-staf, and picche atwo þe rotes]. |
b. A poker.
| 1703 Thoresby Let. to Ray 334 Poit, ‘a fire-poit’, an iron to stir up the fire with. 1808–25 Jamieson, Pout, poit, a poker. 1828 in Craven Gloss. 1864 Preston Poems (W. Yorksh.) 10 (E.D.D.) An walked as stiff..As if he'd swollud t' poyt. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Add., Pote, a poker for a fire. |
c. ‘A broad piece of wood used by thatchers to open the old thatch and thrust in the new straw. Oxon.’ (Halliwell).
2. A kick or push with the foot.
| 1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. from Cumberland and Lancash. to Somerset, Devon, and Cornw. |
3. Comb. † pote-stick (in 4 pootstikke), ? a stick for stirring. But cf. potstick.
| c 1350 Nominale Gall.-Angl. (E.E.T.S.) 511 Morter pil et mundiloun, Morter pestelle and pootstikke. |
▪ II. † pote, n.2 Obs. rare—1.
[a. MDu. pôte, Du. poot: see paw.]
A paw.
| 1481 Caxton Godeffroy 113 The beeste..embraced hym with his potes, or feet to fore. |
▪ III. † pote, n.3 nonce-wd.
[ad. L. pōtus.]
Drink.
| 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. 252 Our means of Life are Pote, and Cibe, and Vest. |
▪ IV. pote, v. Now dial.
Forms: 1 potian, 3–5 pote(n, 4 pot, 5– pote, (6 poote, poat; 9 dial. poat, poot, pooat, poit(e, poyt).
[OE. potian, of uncertain etymology.]
1. trans. To push, thrust.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. I. 522 Fearra ᵹelican..hi, mid leafe þære ealdan æ, heora fynd mid horne lichamlicere mihte potedon. a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. 235 Þa deoflu hy potedon and þoddetton þa earman sawle and heton hy ut faran raðe of þam lichaman. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8891 [Þey] left þer pottyng many on, ȝit stirede þey nought þe leste ston. 1340 Ayenb. 135 Wone is of þe zoþe milde, oþren to herie and praysy, and poten him uorþ an worþssipij. 1382 Wyclif Mark v. 10 He preide hym myche, that he shulde nat put [v.r. poten] hym out of the cuntreie. 1435 Misyn Fire of Love 93 Euerlastynge potand behynde, in temporall solas & bodily lufe þa seyke to florysch. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 606 A! how pynsynesse potyt me to oppresse, that I haue synnyd on euery syde. 1530 Palsgr. 663/1, I poote. 1775 Ash, Pote (vb. tr., a local word), to push. |
b. esp. (trans. and intr.) To push with the foot, to kick; also said of a horse pawing.
| a 1300 Song agst. K. of Almaigne vii. in Pol. Songs (Camden) 71 Al he shulde quite here twelfmoneth scot, Shulde he never more with his fot pot To helpe Wyndesore. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 37 To Pote the Clothes off; to kick all off; to push or put out. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pote, Paut, to push or kick with the feet. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Work-bk. s.v., ‘Them lads han poted these sheets through a'ready.’ 1883 Huddersf. Gloss. s.v., One boy poits another out of bed... ‘She were liggin on her rig a poitin.’ 1884 Cheshire Gloss. s.v., He potes aw th' clooas off him i' bed. |
2. trans. To poke with a stick or the like; esp. to poke or stir (the fire).
| 1709 S. Bowdich in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 266 She..beg'd he would not poot her too hard (as she express'd it). 1828 in Craven Gloss. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Pooat, to poke er probe into a hole. ‘He now gans pooating with a stick’. 1887 Holderness Gloss., Pooat, to poke about. 1890 Gloucestersh. Gloss. s.v., Pote the fire. |
† 3. To crimp or form folds in (linen) with a poting-stick; = poke v.1 3. Obs.
| 1614 Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue v. 215 See, how hee poats, paints, frizzles, fashions him. |
4. In other dial. uses: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
Hence ˈpoted ppl. a., crimped; ˈpoting vbl. n.; ˈpoting-stick, † (a) a wooden, iron, or bone instrument for crimping linen (obs.); (b) dial. a stick for stirring clothes when boiling.
| 1600 Kemp Nine Daies Wond. C ij b, A boy arm'd with a poating sticke. 1609 Heywood Brit. Troy iv. l, He..weares a formall ruffe, A nosegay, set face, and a poted cuffe. a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxxvii. 314 Having..a bucked Ruff, raised, furrowed, and ridged, with Ponting [sic] Sticks of the shape and fashion of small Organ Pipes. 1892 S. Hewett Peas. Sp. Devon 114 'Avee zeed tha poteing-stick, Mary? |
▪ V. pote
obs. form of put v.