▪ I. pot-ˈwalloping, n. nonce-wd.
[f. pot n.1 + walloping: see wallop v.]
The boiling of a pot; in quot. the sound produced by the boiler of an engine.
| 1849 De Quincey Eng. Mail Coach §1 Wks. 1862 IV. 303 The trumpet that once announced from afar the laurelled mail..has now given way for ever to the pot-wallopings of the boiler. |
▪ II. pot-ˈwalloping, a.
[f. as prec.]
1. Boiling a pot: applied to a voter who boiled his pot, or a borough in which the voters were potwallopers (see potwaller).
| 1791–3 Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799) I. 95 Has he any close and pot-wallopping boroughs, where no property is the qualification? 1824 Hist. Gaming 28 A special bargain..that his bill for garden stuff..should be paid off as the price of his pot-walluping vote. 1840 Alison Hist. Europe (1849–50) IX. lxiv. §55. 609 ‘England's pride and Westminster's glory’, as he [Sir F. Burdett] was termed by his potwalloping constituents in that borough. 1893 Vizetelly Glances Back I. i. 7 Hunt managed to get elected..for the pot-walloping borough of Preston. |
¶ 2. erron. for walloping = making vigorous but unwieldy movements. (Cf. wallop v.)
| 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy 161 Royal lumbered through the shallows like a great pot-walloping elephant. |