pot

▪ I. pot, n.¹
    (pɒt)
    Forms: 2–8 pott, 4–7 potte, (5 putte), 3– pot. (Also 4–5 poot, 5 Sc. poyt, mod.Sc. dial. pat, patt.)
    [Late OE. or early ME. pott, cognate with OFris. pot, MDu. pot(t, Du. pot, MLG. pot, put, LG. pot(t; whence mod.Ger. pott, late ON. potte (c 1300), Sw. potta, Da. potte; also with F. pot (12th c. in Littré), obs. It. potto (Florio); cf. Sp., Pg. pote pot, jar. The Fr. and It. point to a late L. *pottus (found in med.L., Du Cange); this can scarcely be identified with cl. L. pōtus drinking, in late L. (Fortunatus c 600) a drinking-cup. The relation between the German and Romanic words is undetermined; Diez and Mackel view the latter as adopted from the former; but from the absence of the word in OHG. and MHG., and its lateness in English, it cannot well be Common Teutonic. The Celtic forms, Breton pod, pot, Corn., Welsh pot, Ir. pota, Gael. poit, are according to Thurneysen adopted from Fr. or Eng. The original source thus remains unknown.]
    1. a. A vessel of cylindrical or other rounded form, and rather deep than broad, commonly made of earthenware or metal (less commonly glass), used to hold various substances, liquid or solid, for domestic or other purposes.
    Often with defining word, as glue-pot, ink-pot, jam-pot, water-pot, watering-pot, etc.: see these words (also the specific uses below).

? a 1200 Sax. Leechd. I. 378 Nim readstalede harhuna & ysopo & stemp & do on ænne neowna pott, & flering of ða harhuna & oðer of ysopo..forð þæt se pott beo full. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 73 Al swo is þe pott ðe is idon on ðe barnende ofne. a 1300 E.E. Psalter xxi. 16 Dried als a pot might be Alle mi might with innen me. a 1300 Cursor M. 22937 Bot als potter wit pottes dos Quen he his neu wessel fordos. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxv. (Julian) 512 Thre gret poyttis..fillyt of gold to þe hals. 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 23 A greet earthin potte. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 4, I was like a potte with a wide mouth, that receiueth quickly and letteth out as quickly. 1685 South Serm. (1697) I. viii. 349 Agathocles first handling the Clay, and making Pots under his Father. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 77 Put rich melted butter in small cups or pots. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 79 A quantity of broken jars and pots. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 441 Blowing out the contents of each of the pipettes into a small glass pot, in which they are thoroughly stirred.

    b. spec. Such a vessel (now usually of metal) used for cooking or boiling. Hence transf. the vessel with the meat or other food boiling in it; also allusively = cooking, food (as in phr. for the pot); also in figurative allusions.

a 1300 Cursor M. 26753 (Cott.) Alle your entrailles ilkon in welland pottes sal be don. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 197 Þei hackeden here children as small as morselis to here poot. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 16 Put alle in þe pot with grythe. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xviii, Kylling of dere with bowes..serueth well for the potte (as is the commune saynge). 1584 Cogan Haven Health lxiii. (1636) 75 An hearbe sometime used in Medicine, but most commonly for the Pot. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa iii. 141 The common sort set on the pot with fresh meat twise euery weeke. 1667 Earl Tweeddale in Lauderdale Papers (1885) II. 45 This was to me lik the spoonful that spoils the pot. 1783 Burke Sp. East-India Bill Wks. IV. 129 Henry the Fourth [of France] wished that he might live to see a fowl in the pot of every peasant. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 38 Boiled meats which involve an apparatus of pots and pans.

fig. a 1225 Ancr. R. 368 Þe wombe pot þet walleð euer of metes, and more of drunches. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 32 Hote Thoght, which hath evere his pottes hote Of love buillende on the fyr. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II cix, Gant let Glocester's pott Boyle only over, though his were as Hott. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ix. vi. (1872) III. 125 An ever-boiling pot of mutiny.

    c. Such a vessel used to contain wine, beer, or any other drink; either for drinking out of (as a pewter pot for beer, etc.), or for pouring the drink into smaller vessels (as a coffee-pot or teapot). (See also 2.)

c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 497 Þis abbot axked hym whither he went, and he said he went to giff his brethir a drynk. So he axkid hym wharto he bare so many pottis. a 1500 Kyng & Hermit 316 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 25, I haue a pott of galons foure, Standyng in a wro. 1597 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. ii. 1527 Noe pennie, noe pott of ale. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 179 The Germans drink in peuter or stone pots, hauing little or no plate. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxiii, Shaking up the ale, by describing small circles with the pot, preparatory to drinking.

    d. An earthenware vessel to hold earth in which a plant is grown; a flower-pot.

[1598–: see flower-pot.] 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. (1660) 54 If you will set forth yellow flowers, take the pots of Primroses and Cowslips. 1856 Delamer Fl. Gard. (1861) 22 It is safer to keep the bulbs in pots..in good, light, rich soil. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. iv. 141 My mother did like arranging the rows of pots in the big greenhouse.

    e. A chamber-pot. Also, the pan of a close stool; a lavatory pan.

1598 Florio Worlde of Wordes 280/1 Pitale,..the pan or pot of a close stoole. 1705 Oliver in Phil. Trans. XXV. 2181 He..did his necessary occasions always in the Pot. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Diseases xviii. 290 There was very little in the pot except mucus tinged..with blood. 1915 Dialect Notes IV. 228 Pot,..very common for chamber. 1954 A. S. C. Ross in Neuphilol. Mitt. LV. 42 U-speakers use ['d{zbreve}ɛri]..or pot. 1956 New Statesman 8 Dec. 740/2 The old woman on the next floor fighting over who choked the cawsy by pitching cinders down the pot. 1958 [see article 14 c].

    f. Applied to various vessels or receptacles used in manufactures, etc.: see quots.

1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 680 The Air which has been compressed in the Pot [in a fire-engine]. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Glass, Take of this crystal frit..set it in pots in the furnace, adding to it a due quantity of manganese. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 228 These coffers, or pots, as they are called [in a steel-converting furnace]. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 576 The materials of every kind of glass are vitrified in pots made of a pure refractory clay. 1875 Ibid. III. 1011 Taken from right to left [of the figure], 1 represents the tinman's pan; 2, the tin-pot; 3, the washing or dipping pot; 4, the grease-pot; 5, the cold pot; 6, the list pot. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Pot. 1. A perforated hogs⁓head in which crude sugar is placed for drainage of the molasses... 3. A brass-founder's name for a crucible. Graphite pots are most generally in use.

    g. A vessel, generally of silver, given as a prize in athletic sports. Cf. pot-hunter 3. Also (slang) applied to any prize so given.

1885 Cyclist 19 Aug. 1083/2 Imagine..a three miles handicap for which the first ‘pot’ is a 95 guineas piano. 1886 Ibid. 11 Aug. 1126/2 The two best men were riding for a bigger stake than the ‘pot’, for were they not the representatives of rival bicycle makers? 1897 in Windsor Mag. Jan. 266/1 A few pots won upon playing-fields.

    h. A protuberant stomach, a paunch; = pot-belly 1.

1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country ii. 40 Mazere..was happy that he could turn to manual work again himself, and felt the better for it. ‘It's taking a little of the pot off me,’ he would exclaim. 1929 Kipling in London Mag. Dec. 631/1 Keede patted his round little pot. 1942 D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) i. 22 At forty-eight..he had no pot at all due to his Yogi exercises. 1952 [see gussy v.]. 1959 Encounter Dec. 31/1 There was a time when I had a little professorial pot; later I was ‘stout’..; then I became, I suppose, definitely pot-bellied. 1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai xiii. 222 The door opened carefully and revealed a tall man with a florid face, a large Roman nose,..and a big pot. 1973 ‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xxix. 129 His pot was hanging obscenely over the lip of a pair of scarlet bathing trunks.

    i. (See quots.) slang.

1941 Amer. Speech XVI. 240 Pot, carburetor. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. viii. 160 Here is a brief list of indigenous Air Force language:..pot, a cylinder. 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1230/1 Pot, n., a cylinder, esp. in one of the old rotary engines: R.F.C.–R.A.F.: 1914–18. They tended to split or to fly off. Hence, any aeroplane-engine cylinder. 1966 ‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse 83 A pot is also a carburettor. To tickle ther pot: To prime a carburettor.

    2. Such a vessel with its contents; hence, the quantity that fills or would fill the vessel, a potful. (Cf. cup n. 8.) a. Const. of (the contents). Also allusively in fig. phr. pot of gold (see quot. 1895).

c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 218 In a fulle potte of mans blode scho it laide. 1535 Coverdale Bel & Dr. 3 Sixe greate pottes of wine. 1587 in 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 420/1, I have sent.. a pott of gelly which my servante made. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 331 O that I could but finde a pot of money now. 1724 Swift Bill for Clergy Residing on Livings ¶5 No entertainment..beyond a pot of ale and a piece of cheese. 1773 Life N. Frowde 33 The good Woman had also kept a Pot of Tea warm for me. 1833 H. Martineau Manch. Strike i. 9 A pipe and pot of porter [were] called for. 1886 Daily News 9 Dec. 5/2 When a pot of coins is found by some old Roman way. 1895 Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable (new ed.) 1036/2 Rainbow chasers, problematical politicians and reformers, who chase rainbows, which cannot possibly be caught, to ‘find the pot of gold at the foot thereof’. This alludes to an old joke, that a pot of gold can be dug up where the rainbow touches the earth. 1966 A. E. Lindop I start Counting xxi. 266 Matron makes a pot of tea quite late at night and lets me go and have a cup with her. 1971 Cape Herald 15 May 14/1 Francis Lee, the Manchester City and England striker has hit the ‘pot-of-gold’ in more ways than one. 1974 ‘E. Lathen’ Sweet & Low i. 11 The Japanese stock market..had been the legendary pot of gold at the end of some local rainbow. 1978 Observer 26 Mar. 11/7 The tendency has been to look at the North Sea in terms of its immediate isolated wealth, as a pot of gold. 1979 W. H. Canaway Solid Gold Buddha iii. 27 Miller..made a pot of tea.

    b. ellipt. A pot of liquor; transf. liquor, drink; drinking, potation (also pl.). Also, a pot of tea. Cf. cup n. 10.

1583 Babington Commandm. iv. (1637) 39 He might with great right have destroyed us, either amongst our pots, or in our dances. 1617 R. Brathwait Smoaking Age O ij b, As if no Poets Genius could be ripe Without the influence of Pot and Pipe. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton i, He carries her into a public-house to give her a pot and a cake. 1794 Southey Botany Bay Ecl. iii. 18, I'll wager a pot I have suffer'd more evils than fell to your lot. 1831 E. J. Trelawny Adventures Younger Son III. xxiii. 152 My wife always turned in three spoonsful,—one for I, one for her, and t'other for the pot. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. viii. II. 338 The hedge alehouse, where he had been accustomed to take his pot on the bench before the door in summer. 1973 ‘E. Ferrars’ Foot in Grave ix. 166 The tea had got cold, so Christine made a fresh pot.

    3. Used as a conventional quantity or measure of various commodities: cf. barrel, firkin, etc.

1530 Palsgr. 257/1 Potte, a gallon measure, pot. 1545 Rates of Customs c j b, Oyle, called baume oyle, the potte, vis. viiid. 1662 Act 14 Chas. II, c. 26 §1 The Pott of Butter ought to weigh Twenty pounds viz. Fourteen pounds of good and Merchantable Butter Neat and the Pott Six pounds. 1681 Manch. Crt. Leet Rec. (1888) VI. 123 Richard Barlow for buying twoe potts of Apples by way of forestallinge. 1775 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 143/1 A pot of sugar weighs about 70 pounds. 1825 H. M. in Hone Every-day Bk. I. 1344 Apples,..from twenty to thirty pots, (baskets containing five pecks each). 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. iv. App. A. (ed. 2) 566 The smaller divisions are into pots (half⁓gallon), quarts, pints, gills, and noggins (eighth of a pint). 1943 [see handle n.1 2 c]. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. Austral. & N.Z. viii. 163 In addition Sydney has a pony of five ounces.., Melbourne a pot of ten ounces (but a pot is eleven ounces in Brisbane), Adelaide a butcher (six ounces) and Perth a big pot (fifteen ounces, which would be a schooner in Sydney or a pint in Adelaide). 1973 Parade (Austral.) Oct. 35/1 ‘Oh, yes,’ said the barman. ‘We like their money, but we don't have middies, we sell pots.’

    4. A steel cap or small helmet, worn esp. by cavalry in the 17th c.; see also quots. 1676, a 1734. Obs. exc. Hist.

1639 Sir E. Verney in V. Papers (Camd.) 227 If I had a pott for the hedd that were pistoll proofe, it may be I would use it, if it were light. 1666 Lond. Gaz. No. 66/3, 4000 Land⁓men..with their Officers, all compleatly armed with Back, Brest, and Pot. 1676 Hobbes Iliad (1677) 143 To defend his head A leather cap without crest, call'd a pot. a 1734 North Exam. iii. vii. §87 (1740) 572 There were abundance of those silken Back, Breast and Potts made and sold, that were pretended to be Pistol Proof. a 1845 A. E. Bray Warleigh xxi, Steel morions, or pots, as they were very commonly called, guarded their skulls.

    5. a. A basket, tub, or box used in pairs, in the manner of panniers with a pack-saddle, to carry manure, sand, etc. dial.

[1388–9: see dung-pot.] 1552 Huloet, Dunge potte made of wickers. 1796 W. Marshall West Eng. I. 122 Dung, sand, materials of buildings, roads, etc., are carried in potts, or strong coarse panniers... The bottom of each pot is a falling door, on a strong and simple construction. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Pots, small D-shaped boxes, placed bow side outwards on either side of a pack⁓saddle for carrying heavy articles.

    b. A wicker basket used as a trap for fish or crustaceans; a fish-pot, lobster-pot, etc.

[a 1555 Fish-pot: see fish n.1 7.] 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 256 In several great Rivers..many have set large Pots made of Osier, with bars in them, that when the Fish are in them,..they could not get out again. 1745 Collinson in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 70 The Crab will live confined in the Pot or Basket some Months. 1867 F. Francis Angling iii. 90 Baskets called ‘pots’..baited with worms.

    c. The ‘pound’ or circular inclosed part of a pound-net; also called the bowl or crib. U.S.

1884 in Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl.

    6. Applied to various things: as † a. A projecting band on the stem of a key, close to the bow (obs.); b. = chimney-pot; c. The head of a rocket.

1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 301/1 Pot or Bead, is the round under the Bow, at the top of the Shank [of a Key]. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 23, H the Shank, I the Pot, or Bread,..L the Bow. a 1845 Hood Town & Country iii, He sinks behind no purple hill, But down a chimney's pot! 1873 E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 126/2 The rocket being then charged, the head or pot must be fixed.

    † 7. a. pot of the head: the skull, cranium, brainpan. b. The socket of a bone at a joint. Obs.

1548–77 Vicary Anat. iii. (1888) 27 The Bone of the Pot of the head keeping in the Braynes. 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. clvii. 463 As the one end of the marrow-bone [goes] into the pot of the spade-bone, and the other end into the pot of the elbow.

    8. A sausage. Now s.w. dial.

c 1450 Nominale (Harl. MS. 1002) lf. 147 Hilla, a white pott or sawsege. 1777 Horæ Subsecivæ (Devonsh.) 337 (E.D.D.) The pot is a hog's black pudding..stuff'd into pits gutts or chitterlings. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Pots and puddings, sausages made of pig's blood and fat. Same as black-puddings.

    9. a. A large sum of money. colloq. (Cf. 2.)

1856 Knickerbocker XLVIII. 619 They had hauled down a big pot and intended henceforth to live as jolly as clams. 1871 Mrs. H. Wood Dene Hollow xxiv, A grandfather, who must possess pots of money laid by. 1876 F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow I. xvi. 219 He went to India..and came back..with a pot of money. 1897 ‘Ouida’ Massarenes v, You'll make a pot by it, as Barnum did.

    b. slang. A large sum staked or betted.

1823 ‘J. Bee’ Dict. Turf s.v., ‘I shall put on the pot at the July meeting’, signifies that the speaker will bet very high (at races), or up to thousands... Lord Abingdon once declared ‘I will put on the pot to-day’, and he did so with a vengeance—his groom, Jack Oakly, put him in the pot. 1840 Sporting Rev. Aug. 119 It needed only to lay against all, to insure a prize proportioned to the ‘pot’ put on. 1859 Lever Davenp. Dunn I. xiv. 124 The [horse] you have backed with a heavy pot. 1880 J. Payn Confid. Agent I. 214 He had solaced himself..by ‘putting the pot’ on at cards.

    c. Racing. ‘A horse backed for a large amount, a favourite’ (Farmer Slang).

1823 ‘J. Bee’ Dict. Turf s.v., ‘Pot 8 O's’, the name of a race-horse, meaning 80,000 l. or guineas. 1873 Slang Dict., Pot, a favourite in the betting for a race. Probably so called because it is usual to say that a heavily-backed horse carries ‘a pot of money’. When a favourite is beaten the pot is said to be upset. 1883 Graphic 17 Nov. 494/2 Medicus, the great Cambridgeshire ‘pot’, and Thebais, who showed well in that race, were among the runners. 1892 J. Kent Racing Life Ld. G. C. Bentinck ix. 201 Horses trained at Goodwood in 1842 beat great pots from Danebury.

    d. A person of importance. (Usually big pot.)

1880 Hardy Trumpet-Major I. viii. 135 When Festus put on the big pot, as it is classically called, he was quite blinded ipso facto to the diverting effect of that mood and manner upon others. 1885 Punch 12 Sept. 131/2 Oh, Yorkshire and Lancashire both are big pots. But Cricket's top honours again go to Notts. 1891 Licensed Victualler's Gaz. 9 Feb., Dick pointed out some of the big pots of the day. 1899 Whiteing 5 John St. xiv, The father's some tremendous pot in the financial way. 1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 28 Big pot (Music-hall 1878–82)... This phrase is probably one of the few that filter down in the world from Oxford, where, in the 50's it was the abbreviation of potentate. It referred to a college don, or a social magnate. 1947 ‘A. P. Gaskell’ Big Game 24, I don't feel at home with these big pots. 1979 R. Rendell Make Death love Me iii. 29 Some general at the head of it. Some big pot who means business.

    e. Cards. ‘In faro, the name given to the six-, seven-, and eight-spots in the lay-out’ (Cent. Dict.); also, orig. U.S., the betting pool in poker and other gambling games. Also fig. Cf. sense 9 b, jack-pot s.v. Jack n.¹ 34 a.

1847 J. H. Greene Gambling Unmasked (rev. ed.) 196 He won the first twenty ‘pots’, that is to say, the stake [in poker]. 1856 G. W. Bagby Old Virginia Gentleman (1910) 228 He has no great faith in ‘cases’, but believes in betting on three cards at a time, and has a special hankering for ‘the pot’ [in faro]. 1868 [see keno b]. 1878 [see bullet n.1 6]. 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Speeches (1923) 147 What is still more irregular, the man that loses a game gets the pot. 1890 J. P. Quinn Fools of Fortune ii. ii. 194 In the [faro] ‘lay-out’..the six, seven and eight are called the pot. 1892 [see chip v.1 8 b]. 1895 Funk's Stand. Dict., Pot,..5. Card-playing, (1) The amount of stakes played for; the pool. (2) In faro, the six, seven, and eight of the layout, collectively. 1935 Encycl. Sports 466/2 If no player opens there is a fresh deal, each player once more contributing to the pot, and so on until the pot is opened. 1951 Amer. Speech XXVI. 100/1 Open the pot, to make the first bet after the ante [in poker]. Ibid. 100/2 Pot, the total accumulation of all bets. It rests in the centre of the table, equi-distant from each player. 1963 Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch 16 Dec. 19/2 When a poker player has absolute confidence in his hand he shoves into the pot every chip he has. 1971 Black World June 73/1 The sergeant put up the house, got the men into the game and took half the pot. 1977 I. Shaw Beggarman, Thief ii. i. 118 ‘And if you succeed, then what?’ he said. ‘Russia takes the whole pot.’

    f. old pot: see old a. 1 c.
    10. (Usu. spelt pott.) In full, pott-paper: A size of printing or writing paper: originally bearing the watermark of a pot (cf. foolscap). Also attrib., as pott-folio, -octavo, -quarto.
    The sheet measures normally 15½ × 12½ inches.

1579 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 165, iiijor quiers of pott paper. a 1625 Fletcher Nice Valour iv. i, He prints my blows upon pot-paper too, the rogue! Which had been proper for some drunken pamphlet. 1712 Lond. Gaz. No. 5018/3 For all Paper called..Superfine Pot 2s. Second fine Pot 1s. 6d...per Ream. 1882 Daily Tel. 17 Jan. 5 Only four copies of the first edition, in ‘pot’ folio, are known to be in existence. 1890 in Webster. 1894 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. Recollect. II. xxv. 229 Legal drafts on pot-paper. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XX. 735/1 Writing papers. Pott..12½ × 15. 1926 Paper Terminol. (Spalding & Hodge, Ltd.) 21 Pott, a standard size of printing paper measuring 15½ ×12½ in. (with slight variations). The term is derived from an ancient ‘pot’ watermark, which represented the Sangraal. 1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper vii. 69 Sizes of paper in the United Kingdom centre round fifteen designs: Foolscap, Demy, Medium,..Pott, Elephant,..Eagle and Columbier.

    11. As the name of a substance: Earthenware, stoneware; attrib. made of ‘pot’. Also, an earthenware chimney-piece ornament; dial. and local U.S. a boy's marble of baked clay; a fragment of pottery played with in hopscotch or other games. Also, the game of hopscotch itself or a part of the game. Cf. pig n.²

1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 466 A suitable thin tool or utensil of pot, of the profile of the inside, is applied. 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 333/2 A street-seller who accompanied me called them merely ‘pots’ (the trade term), but they were all pot ornaments. Among them were great store of shepherdesses, of greyhounds [etc.]. Ibid. II. 396/2 The use of earthenware, clay, or pot pipes for the conveyance of liquids is very ancient. 1864 Brierley Layrock iii. 40 Lookin'-glasses, an' pot dolls. 1866 W. Gregor Dial. Banffshire 132 Pot,..the last division in the game of hippin'-beds [sc. hopscotch]. 1884 Daily News 13 Oct. 5/1 Those who kicked against ceramic art, and protested vehemently against what they called ‘decoration by pot’. 1893–4 R. O. Heslop Northumb. Words II. 549 Pot, the heading written at the top of the game called ‘beds’, or, locally, ‘hitchey dabber’... To achieve it is to get ‘pot’. 1895 Funk's Stand. Dict., Pot..pl. (Local, U.S.) (1) The game of hop-scotch. 1920 Webster, Pot.., a piece of pottery or earthenware, as a marble or piece for playing hop scotch. 1936 Glasgow Herald 10 Nov., ‘Hopscotch’, however is an English name. We Scots called it ‘peever’,..or ‘pot’, or ‘the beds’... In some parts of Scotland beds 7 and 8 were called ‘the kail pats’, and this may be one reason why the game is sometimes called ‘pot’. Another explanation is that a piece of broken pot or earthenware was often used as a peever.

    12. pl. pots: short for potashes.

1849 Saxe Proud Miss Mac Bride xvii, For John had worked in his early day, In ‘Pots and Pearls’ the legends say.

    13. Phrases and Proverbs. a. the pot goes so long (or often) to the water that it is broken at last (with several variations of wording). b. the pot calls the kettle black (etc.): said of a person who blames another for something of which he himself is also guilty; so to call each other pot and kettle, etc. † c. the pot walks: said of a drinking bout, in which the pot of liquor is passed from one to another. (See also quot. 1691.) Obs. d. a little pot is soon hot: a little person is easily roused to anger. e. to boil the pot, make the pot boil: to provide one's liveihood. (Cf. pot boiler, -boiling, potwaller.) So, in same sense, to keep the pot boiling; also, to keep anything going briskly. f. to go to pot (formerly also to the pot): to be cut in pieces like meat for the pot; to be ruined or destroyed (now colloq.). Also, to deteriorate, to go to pieces. So † to bring or send to (the) pot (obs.), put in the pot, etc. † g. to have a pot in the pate: to be the worse for liquor. Obs. † h. to make the pot with the two ears: ‘to set the arms akimbo’ (Davies). Obs. i. in (one's) pots: in a state of intoxication (cf. in one's cups). j. Various other phrases and proverbs.

a. 1340 Ayenb. 206 Zuo longe geþ þet pot to þe wetere, þet hit comþ to-broke hom. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 82 It is a trew prouerbe, that ‘the potte may goo so longe to water, that atte the laste it is broken’. c 1645 Howell Lett. I. i. vi, That the Pot which goes often to the water, comes home crack'd at last.

b. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v., ‘The Pot calls the kettle black A―’, when one accuses another of what he is as Deep in himself. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xxxii, Do you know what the pot called the kettle? 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz xxiv, I've been as good a son as ever you were a brother. It's the pot and the kettle, if you come to that. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 6 Mar. 10/1 There has been a good deal of ‘pot and kettle’ in the stories from the British and Boer camps since the war began.

c. 1567 Harman Caveat (Shaks. Soc.) 32 How the pottes walke about! their talking tounges talke at large. 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 216 The pott continually walking, infused desperate and foolish hardinesse in many. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 157 Author..of other little trivial matters meerly to get bread, and make the pot walk.

d. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 25 And Christ wot It is wood at a word, little pot soon whot. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 6 Now were not I a little pot, and soone hot. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. ix. (1861) 137 It is an old saying, that ‘a little pot is soon hot’, which was the case with William the Testy. Being a little man he was soon in a passion, and once in a passion he soon boiled over.

e. [1587 Harrison England ii. ii. (1877) i. 63 One of the best paire of bellowes..that blue the fire in his [the pope's] kitchen, wherewith to make his pot seeth.] 1657–61 Heylin Hist. Ref. (1674) 100 So poor, that it is hardly able to keep the Pot boiling for a Parsons Dinner. 1812 Combe Picturesque xxiii. 18 No fav'ring patrons have I got, But just enough to boil the pot. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Keep-the-pot-boiling, a common expression among young people, when they are anxious to carry on their gambols with spirit. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxx. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xvi. ii. (1872) VI. 151 A feeling that glory is excellent, but will not make the national pot boil. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 139 To employ them, as a literary man is always tempted, to keep the domestic pot a-boiling. 1887 Times (weekly ed.) 7 Oct. 15/1 His lieutenants keep the rebellion pot boiling in..Ireland.

f. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 116 The riche & welthie of his subjectes went dayly to the potte, & wer chopped up. 1552 Latimer Serm. in Lincoln i. 66 They that pertayne to God,..they must goe to the potte, they must suffer here accordying to y⊇ Scripture. 1573 New Custom ii. iii. C iij b, Thou mightest sweare: if I could I would bring them to the pot. 1609 W. M. Man in Moone (Percy Soc.) 8 All that hee can get or borrow goeth to the pot. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 32 All went to the pot [in the fourth Persecution] without respect of Sex, dignity or number. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 120 The Sea-men..resolv'd, the Passengers should be drest and eaten, before any of them should goe to the Pot. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 552 He..had been engaged..to bring in K. Ch. 2. from Scotland (for which he had like to have gone to the pot). 1823 ‘J. Bee’ Dict. Turf. s.v., ‘Put in the pot’, said of a man who is let into a certain loss—of a wager, of his liberty or life.

1530 Tindale Answ. More i. xxix. Wks. (1572) 293/1 Then goeth a part of y⊇ little flocke to pot, and the rest scatter. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 828 They had eaten sixe of his fellowes, and the next day he must haue gone to pot too. c 1680 Hickeringill Hist. Whiggism Wks. 1716 I. ii. 158 Poor Thorp, Lord Chief Justice, went to Pot, in plain English, he was Hang'd. 1699 Bentley Phal. xvi. 506 For if the Agrigentines had met with them, they [the letters of Phalaris] had certainly gone to pot. 1708 W. King Cookery 91 Ev'ry thing that ev'ry Soldier got, Fowl, Bacon, Cabbage, Mutton, and what not, Was all thrown into Bank, and went to Pot. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Expost. Odes xii. vii, Thousands will smile to see him go to pot. 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 3 Reviewers..Who..send each Author to pot, That cannot proclaim he's by birth a true Scot. 1846 Swell's Night Guide 120/2 Gone to pot, become poor in circumstances, gone to the dogs. 1884 Pall Mall G. 16 Feb. 4/2 If it were to save the whole empire from going to pot, nobody would stay at home. 1889 Cornh. Mag. July 46 For the potato is really going to pot... Constitutional disease and the Colorado beetle have preyed too long upon its delicate organism. 1910 E. M. Forster Howards End xxv. 205 Evie heard of her father's engagement when she was in for a tennis tournament, and her play went simply to pot. 1923 S. Kaye-Smith End of House of Alard iv. 327 If we hung on now, still further crippled by death-duties, the land would simply go to pot. 1942 E. Paul Narrow St. iv. 37 The Comédie Fran{cced}aise..went to pot artistically and remained a travesty of its former self until reorganized about 1938. 1953 E. Simon Past Masters ii. 81 Discipline's gone all to pot at the camp. 1956 W. Graham Sleeping Partner 57 She could go in and clean up once in a while... The house wouldn't go to pot in a week or so. 1968 Globe & Mail Mag. (Toronto) 13 Jan. 11/3 Only a quarter of the Sames now depend on reindeer herding... Some of them, like some of Canada's native people, go to pot. 1979 Truck & Bus Transportation (Austral.) Apr. 65/2 It's [sc. the brake is] there to do its job, but it can throw a spanner in the works if the adjustment setting goes to pot.

g. 1658 Osborn Adv. Son (1673) 28 Especially when they have got a pot in their pate. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 77 An Ox or a Cow would serve them to ride well enough, if they had only a Pot in the Pate.

h. 1675 Cotton Burlesque upon B. 117 See what a goodly port she bears, Making the pot with the two Ears!

i. 1618 Hornby Sco. Dronk. (1859) 20 There euery vpstart, base-condition'd slaue,..A gentleman vnto his teeth will braue, And in his pots most malapertly bragge. c 1618 Moryson Itin. iv. iv. i. (1903) 340 In theire Potts [they] will promise any thinge, and make all bargaynes.

j. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 81 He that commeth last to the pot, is soonest wroth. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 53 And I would not gladly so spend my time and trauell,..and after,..to lose both pot and water, as the prouerbe is. 1682 N. O. Boileau's Lutrin iv. Argt. 30 Yet so, the Fancy's richer, To end in Pot, commence in Pitcher! 1687 Montague & Prior Hind & P. Transv. 12 And understanding grown, misunderstood, Burn'd Him to th' Pot, and sour'd his curdled Blood. 1880 M. E. Braddon Clov. Foot xxxviii, Don't you know that vulgar old proverb that says that ‘a watched pot never boils’? 1893 Stevenson Catriona iii. 26 While we were all in the pot together, James had shown no such particular anxiety whether for Alan or me.

    k. Austral. and N.Z. slang. to put (a person's) pot on: to inform against, to tell tales; to destroy the prospects of. Cf. pot v.¹ 6 b.

1913 A. J. Rees Merry Marauders xi. 206 You ought to put the Liquor Party's pot on. 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 40 Put his pot on—Report him. 1928 W. S. Smyth Jean of Tussock Country vi. 59 Dalton has put your pot on. 1935 Davison & Nicholls Blue Coast Caravan 178 He saw some blacks..standing on the platform under guard of a policeman. ‘Hullo, what's up?’ One of them replied, ‘Aw, somebody's been putting our pot on.’ 1948 Landfall II. 110 ‘Got a ten bob rise last week,’ Duggan said. ‘Funny that, you know,’ Larry said. ‘I been there about the same time as you, Tom, and I haven't had a rise yet. Wonder if Myers put my pot on.’ 1957 V. Palmer Seedtime 119 There's an election coming on, and there's a chance I'll be dumped... This afternoon's work has probably put my pot on.

    l. to get off the pot (and extensions): see quot. 1972. coarse slang (chiefly N. Amer.).

1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1269/2 Shit or get off the pot! A Canadian Army c.p. (1939–45), directed at a dice-player unable to ‘crap out’. 1966 ‘A. Hall’ 9th Directive x. 90 Get some definite information for me. Tell the Ambassador to get off the bloody pot. 1972 Dict. Contemp. & Colloq. Usage (Eng.-Lang. Inst. Amer.) 26/2 Shit or get off the pot, vulgar. A command that someone either complete an action in process or abandon the attempt and give someone else the opportunity to try. 1973 W. McCarthy Detail ii. 112 You've got forty-eight hours, that's all. Either get it, or get off the pot. 1974 Farm & Country 26 Mar. 4/2 To put it bluntly: the Ottawa politicians had better perform at once or get off the pot. 1977 ‘J. Le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy xii. 275 You better tell some of those limousine liberals back in Langley Virginia it's time for them to shit or get off the pot.

    14. attrib. and Comb., as pot-grown, pot-like, pot-shaped adjs.; grown or cultivated in a pot (sense 1 d), as pot-flower, pot-plant, pot-rose; made of ‘pot’ or earthenware (sense 11, q.v.); † pot-act, name for an Act of Parliament relating to the sale of liquor; pot-ale, the completely fermented wash in distillation; † pot-ally, a pot-mate, a companion in carousing; pot annealing vbl. n. = box annealing; also attrib.; hence pot-anneal v. trans.; pot-arch, an arch in a glass-making furnace, in which the pots are annealed; † pot-baked a., baked as pottery; † pot-baker, one who bakes clay into pots, etc., a potter; pot-ball, a dumpling; pot-bank dial., a pottery (bank n.² 8 b); pot barley: see barley 1 b; † pot-birds, a theatrical imitation of the notes of birds (? by blowing through a pipe in a pot or vessel of water); pot-board, a board upon which pots are placed or carried; pot-bouls, † -bulis Sc.: pot-clips: see boul 2; † pot-brass, a metal or alloy of which pots were made; pot-builder, a workman who constructs the large pots used in glass-works; pot-bunker Golf, an artificially constructed pot-shaped bunker; pot-burial, a prehistoric form of burial found in Crete (see quot.); pot-butter, dial., butter salted and put up in pots; potted or salt butter; † pot-cannon, a pop-gun; cf. pot-gun 2; pot-celt, a celt with a comparatively large opening (see celt²); pot-claw = pot-clip, pot-hook; pot clay, clay used for making earthenware; also (freq. with capital initials), a bed of this kind of clay near the base of the English coal measures; pot courage = Dutch courage s.v. courage n. 4 d; pot-crook = pot-hook, now dial.; pot cultivation, pot culture, cultivation of plants in pots; pot cupboard, a bedside cupboard designed to hold a chamber pot; † pot dropsy, diabetes (cf. 1 e); pot-drum (see quot.); pot-dung, dial., farm-yard manure, carried to the field in pots: cf. sense 5 a, and dung-pot; hence pot-dung v. trans., to dung with farm-yard manure; pot-fair, a fair at which pots and other crockery are sold; pot-founder, a maker of earthenware pots, a potter; pot-fowler, one who catches birds for the pot, i.e. for cooking; in quot. applied to a hawk; pot-furnace, a furnace containing pots for glassmaking; also, any furnace in which crucibles are heated; † pot-fury, fury or excitement caused by drinking (cf. 2 b); pot-girl, a girl who serves drink at a tavern, etc., a barmaid (cf. pot-boy); pot-green = pot-herb; pot-gut(s), (a) = pot-belly 2; also, a pot-bellied animal; (b) = pot-belly 1; pot-gutted a. = pot-bellied; † pot-hardy a., bold from the effects of drink (= pot-valiant); † pot-harness (nonce-wd.), ‘harness’ or armour consisting of drink (see quot.); pot hat (colloq.), a low-crowned stiff felt hat, a ‘bowler’; hence pot-hatted a.; pot-helmet (cf. sense 4); pot-kiln, a small lime-kiln; † pot-knight, a ‘knight of the pot’, a pot-valiant toper; pot-lace, lace having the figure of a pot or vase (often containing flowers) in the pattern; pot-ladle, a ladle for lifting anything out of a pot; pot-layering, a method of propagating trees or shrubs in which a ball of soil, sometimes held within a split pot, is attached to a cut on a branch until enough roots have grown for the branch to be planted independently; † pot-leech, one who ‘sucks’, or drinks out of, a pot; a toper; pot-licker, potlicker N. Amer., a mongrel dog; also attrib.; hence pot-licking, potlicking, toadying; pot life, the length of time that a glue, resin, or the like remains usable after preparation; pot-line, a line of retorts used for the electrolytic production of aluminium; pot-lug, dial. = pot-ear 1; pot marigold, the common marigold, Calendula officinalis, whose petals may be used to colour or flavour food; pot marjoram, a small shrub, Origanum onites, whose leaves are used to flavour food; pot-market, a market for pottery-ware; † pot-mate = pot-companion; † pot-meal, a drinking bout; pot-mess Naut. slang, a stew concocted from various scraps; transf., a state of confusion or complete disorder; pot-miser, a kind of ‘miser’ or boring instrument (miser n.³); pot-paper (see sense 10); † pot-parliament, ? an assembly of drinkers; pot-plate, a porcelain plate bearing the figure of a pot, vase, or other vessel; † pot-proof-armour (nonce-wd.), ‘proof-armour’ or defence supplied by the pot, i.e. by drinking; † pot-punishment (nonce-wd.), the punishment of being forced to drink; pot-quarrel, a quarrel ‘in one's pots’ (see 13 i); a drunken brawl; pot-quern, a pot-shaped quern or ancient hand-mill; pot rassler, rastler, U.S. var. pot-wrestler; so pot rassling, rastling vbl. n. (see quot.); pot-revel, a drunken revel, a drinking bout; pot-setting, the process of setting or placing the pots in the furnaces in glass-making; † pot-shaken, pot-sick a., † (a) disordered with liquor, tipsy, intoxicated; (b) nonce-use, pot-bound; cramped or starved of nutrient; pot-sleeper, a metal sleeper for railways of dish-like form; † pot-smitten a. (nonce-wd.), of a bargain, made by striking drinking vessels together; pot-song, a drinking song; pot-spoon, a large spoon for taking liquor out of a pot, a ladle; pot stand, a stand designed to hold pots or potted plants; pot-steel, ? = cast or crucible steel; pot still, a still to which heat is applied directly as to a pot, not by means of a steam-jacket; attrib. applied to whisky distilled in a pot-still; so pot-stilled adj.; † pot-sure a., bold or confident through drink (cf. pot-valiant); † pot-tipt a. (nonce-wd.), of the nose, reddened at the tip by drinking; pot-training, vbl. n., the training of a small child to use a chamber pot; hence (as a back-formation) pot-train v., pot-trained ppl. a.; pot-trap, (a) a pot set in the ground as a trap for moles; (b) a kind of trap used in drainage (? a D-trap); † pot-vertigo (verdugo) (nonce-wd.), giddiness induced by drinking; pot-ware, earthenware, crockery; pot-washings n. pl., food removed from pots by washing; pot-water, water for cooking purposes; pot-wheel, a wheel with pots or buckets for raising water, a noria; † pot-wit, one whose wit is displayed while drinking, or through drink; pot-woman, (a) a woman who sells pots; (b) obs., a barmaid; (c) a woman who works at pottery; pot-work, an establishment where pottery or earthenware is made; † pot-wort = pot-herb; pot-wrestler (slang), (a) ‘the cook on a whale-ship’; (b) ‘a scullion (Pennsylvania)’ (Bartlett); ‘a kitchen-maid (U.S.)’ (Cent. Dict.).; (c) a chef; so pot wrestling vbl. n. See also potash, pot-luck, etc.

1737 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. (ed. 33) 87 Register of the Victuallers..on Account of the *Pot-Act.

1812 Sporting Mag. XL. 86 Indicted for using an unlicensed still, and for having in his possession vessels containing *pot ale. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 581 Feints from pot-ale (the name given to completely fermented wash). 1847 Webster, Pot-ale, a name in some places given to the refuse from a grain distillery, used to fatten swine.

a 1619 Fletcher, etc. Knt. Malta ii. i, What can all this do? Get me some dozen surfeits.. And twenty *pot-allies.

1928 H. M. Boylston Introd. Metall. Iron & Steel xv. 519 Tool steels are sometimes annealed in open-type furnaces of fairly small size, but in many cases are *pot annealed. 1938 C. G. Johnson Forging Pract. 111 The steel is cooled very slowly either with the furnace..or cooled in a pot surrounded by heat insulating material (pot annealed).

1925 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXII. 453 A newly designed installation for the drying of wire bundles..is..described, in which the chambers are heated with the waste gases from *pot annealing furnaces. 1934 Ibid. CXXIX. 519 (heading) The heat conditions for the pot-annealing of steel hoops.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 586 (Glass-making) Three of these arches exclusively appropriated to this purpose [annealing], are called *pot-arches.

1545 Joye Exp. Dan. ii. 28 b, Thou didste see the yerne mixt with *pot bakt erthe.

1621 Ainsworth Annot. Pentat., Lev. xi. 33 Vessels of *Pot-bakers earth.

1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 293/2 A Dumpling, or *Pot-Ball, is made..with ordinary flour and suet minced small, and mixed up with Milk or Water. Ibid. iii. 84/1. 1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. from Lanc., Chesh., Shrops., Warw.

1888 Sat. Rev. LXVI. 11/1 Countless generations worked at the ‘*potbank’. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 28 Mar. 7/1 We are in the heart of the Potteries, ‘the potbanks’, as they call them up here.

1812 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. ii. App. 50 The expence of making *pot barley..is..2s. 6d. per boll.

1621 Fletcher Pilgr. v. iv. Stage direct., Music afar off, *Pot-birds.

1840–1 S. Warren Ten Thous. a Year (1884) 89/1 ‘It's a fine thing to be gentlefolk’, said the boy, taking up his *pot-board. 1881 Young Ev. Man his own Mechanic §898 A ‘pot-board’ on which sancepans, kettles, etc., are placed when not in use.

1519–20 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 307 Ress'..of hym for xxix ll of olde *potbras, the ll j d ob.

1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 136 Three times has the whole mass to pass under his feet before it goes on to the *pot-builder.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 30 Apr. 4/2 Had its original whins been forest-trees we should not now be digging *pot-bunkers. 1963 Times 5 June 5/2 He..found a pot bunker and took seven which enabled Pirie..to halve.

1921 Discovery Feb. 33/1 A simpler form of burial, known as the ‘*pot-burial’, was effected by trussing up the body, placing it under an inverted jar, and then burying it in the earth.

a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady i. ii, One that..rose by honey and *pot-butter. 1785 Hist. & Antiq. York II. 109 This Market is only for Firkin or Pot-Butter. 1886 Elworthy West Somers. Word-bk, Pot-butter..in order to keep it, larger quantities of salt are needed. Hence salt and pot applied to butter are synonymous terms.

1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. xix, When little boyes shoot pellets out of the *pot-canons made of the hollow sticks of..an aulder tree.

1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3821/8 A quantity of *Pot-Clay, and Working Tools for Bottles or Flint. 1860 E. Hull Geol. Leicestershire Coalfield (Mem. Geol. Survey) vi. 35 (caption) A. Loose breccia... B. Purple marl forming base of New Red Sandstone. C. Sandy shale. D. Coal 3 feet thick. E. Pot-clay, with rootlets stretching from the coal. 1913 Geol. Derbyshire Coalfield (Mem. Geol. Survey) viii. 124 Pot-clay suitable for the manufacture of stoneware occurs below a thin coal above the Alton seam. Ibid. 125 A bastard gannister, unsuited for use either as a pot-clay or as a gannister. 1939 tr. E. N. Marais's My Friends the Baboons vii. 81 Some were busy digging pot-clay from the hole with their hands while others were fashioning oxen and other animals from the clay. 1951 Concealed Coalfield of Yorkshire & Nottinghamshire (ed. 3) (Mem. Geol. Survey) iii. 13 The Coal Measures rest conformably on the Millstone Grit Series, the dividing line being placed, by international agreement (Jongmans 1928, p. xliv), at the Pot Clay or Gastrioceras Subcrenatum Marine Band. 1968 M. A. Calver in Murchison & Westoll Coal viii. 173 The Pot Clay fauna lacks the typical benthonic assemblage exhibited by the other kinds of marine band.

1806 C. Wilmot Let. 14 Oct. in Russ. Jrnls. (1934) ii. 231 In a fit of *Pot Courage no doubt he stroked his paunch & felt himself a Hero! 1867 E. Cust Lives Warriors II. i. 190 One of the best officers..became so drunk, that in his pot-courage he wrapped the napkin about his head, and went out in this guise into the trenches to attack the foe.

1515 Barclay Egloges ii. (1570) B ij b/2 Platters and dishes, morter and *potcrokes. 1816 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Middlesex Election iii. xii, E'en let'n suffer vor a rogue, A potcrook let'n veel. 1882 Jago Cornish Gloss., Pot-crooks, the second form in learning to write.

1845 Florist's Jrnl. 17 This species requires *pot cultivation.

1794 T. Sheraton Cabinet-Maker & Upholsterer's Drawing Bk. iii. 364 This left-hand drawer is..sometimes made very short, to give place to a *pot-cupboard behind, which opens by a door at the end of the sideboard. 1973 Country Life 26 Apr. (Suppl.) 59/4 Late 18th century mahogany pot-cupboard.

1625 Hart Anat. Ur. i. ii. 23 Another..dangerous disease..called Diabete or *Potdropsy.

1912 Encycl. Relig. & Ethics V. 90/1 The *pot-drum is an earthenware vessel headed with a membrane.

1787 Grose Provinc. Dict., *Pot-dung, farm-yard dung. Berks. 1794 T. Davis Agric. Wilts 107 The home arable should be manured with pot-dung.

1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. ii. 524 The land..is then *pot-dunged, and sowed with white mustard.

1836–48 B. D. Walsh Aristoph. 103 note, Certain mysterious orgies annually celebrated at Cambridge during the *Pot-fair.

1878 T. Hardy Ret. Native vi. i, He was looking at the *pot-flowers on the sill.

1631 Canterb. Marr. Licences (MS.), John Tiler of Hawkhurst, *pot-founder.

1834 Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 97 [The Goshawk] is nowise inferior as a *pot-fowler, if the ground for it be judiciously chosen.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 577 The flame that escapes from the founding or *pot-furnace is thus economically brought to reverberate on the raw materials of the bottle glass. 1905 W. Macfarlane Lab. Notes Pract. Metall. ii. (heading) Exercises in a crucible or ‘pot’ furnace. Ibid. 13 Gas coke is often good enough for a pot furnace. 1930 Engineering 18 Apr. 525/3 Sillimanite sieges in pot furnaces were more common. 1971 Materials & Technol. II. vi. 366 Pot furnaces. These are used for melting optical glass and other special glasses in quantities of up to half a ton at a time.

1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. i. iii, With some *pot-furie ravisht from their wit.

1797 Lamb Let. to Coleridge 5 Jan., You cannot surely mean to degrade the Joan of Arc into a *pot-girl.

1742 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman July iii. 36 They proved..sweet Eating, when no other *Pot Greens could be hardly got. 1972 Sci. Amer. Nov. 130/3 She studied our Southern cookbooks, too,..coming to the conclusion that ‘distinctive features of Southern cooking are African in origin’: gumbos and burgoo, hush puppies and pot greens, to begin with.

1915 W. L. Howard (title) Rest period studies with *pot-grown woody plants (Missouri Agric. Exper. Station Res. Bull. No. 16). 1946 G. A. R. Phillips Rock Garden iv. 64 Pot grown plants may be planted with comparative safety at any time of the year. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 9 Feb. 119/2 Start with small trees. In the case of macrocarpa, which are usually pot-grown, you could plant trees of 1½–2 ft. 1977 C. Lloyd Clematis vii. 114 Pot-grown clematis have the advantage of needing very little root disturbance in the process of planting.

1909 Dialect Notes III. 359 *Pot-gut, n., a pot-bellied person. c 1926 ‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 72 She's seated in a motor With some ‘pot-gut’ by her side. 1926 G. Frankau My Unsentimental Journey xiv. 182 Those little squirrels they call ‘pot-guts’ scuttle fatly across the well-made road. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §429/2 Fat person..pot-gut(s). 1951 R. Campbell Light on Dark Horse 75 Then his old pot-guts would shake like a jelly.

1773 Graves Spir. Quix. iv. viii, I a vessel of broth! you *pot-gutted rascal! 1845 Spirit of Times 2 Aug. 267/1 Ar you a goin to tumtum all nite on that pot-gutted old pine box of a fiddle, say? 1909 Dialect Notes III. 359 Pot-gutted, adj., pot-bellied. 1912 Ibid. 586 Look at that pot-gutted beer fly, will you. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 56 Pot-gutted, fat, paunchy.

1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 3 That garland..From th' Temples sure of some *pot hardy Poet.

1622 S. Ward Woe to Drunkards (1627) 36 To whet their wits with wine; or arme their courage with *Pot-harnesse.

1798 Jane Austen Lett. (1884) I. 168 She looks much as she used to do,..and wears what Mrs. Birch would call a *pot hat. 1873 Slang Dict., Pot-hat, a low-crowned hat, as distinguished from the soft wideawake and the stove-pipe. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 16 Dec. 3/2 Dressed like an ordinary tourist in a tweed suit, a blue overcoat, and a pot-hat.

1899 Daily News 25 Sept. 7/3 A band of *pot-hatted young men linked arms, and..marched along, followed by an enthusiastic crowd.

1634 Wither Emblemes 223 Some from the *pot-kilne, from the sheep cote some Hee raised hath. 1834 Brit. Husb. I. 304 They appear to pay dearly at present for lime, and the sorry pot-kilns by which it is manufactured are so badly managed.

1587 Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 160 The beere..is cleere and..yellow as the gold noble, as our *potknights call it.

1865 *Pot lace [see Antwerp]. 1960 H. Hayward Antique Coll. 15/2 The style of pattern has given this [sc. Antwerp lace] the name of pot lace..from the substantial two-handled vase usually prominent in it.

c 1500 Coventry Corp. Christi Plays 30 Here with my *pott-ladull With hym woll I fyght. [a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Pot-ladles, tad-poles; from their shape.]

1912 A. F. Broun Sylviculture in Tropics ii. iv. 146 ‘*Pot-layering’ is employed for branches which are either too high up a tree or too brittle to be bent into the ground. 1934 [see air-layering (air n.1 II)]. 1961 Amat. Gardening 30 Sept. (Suppl.) 2/3 Air-layering. Also known as pot-layering... A means of rooting branches or shoots.

1630 J. Taylor Water-Cormorant Wks. iii. 5/1 This valiant *pot-leach, that vpon his knees Has drunke a thousand pottles vp se freese.

1932 V. Randolph Ozark Mountain Folks 223 Jethro was splitting wood as I rode into his little clearing, heralded by a great number of *pot-licker dogs. 1947 Clarke County Democrat (Grove Hill, Alabama) 30 Oct. 4/3 A hound is a hound, regardless of whether he is July, Red Bone, Walker, potlicker or just plain hush-puppy. 1948 W. Faulkner Intruder in Dust (1949) i. 5 A true rabbit dog, some hound, a good deal of hound, maybe mostly hound, redbone and black-and-tan with maybe a little pointer somewhere once, a potlicker, a nigger dog. 1971 W. Hillen Blackwater River ii. 10 One man was walking through the village with his three pot-lickers when they met a housecat.

1929 *Potlicking [see hole v.1 7]. 1968–70 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) III–IV. 95 Pot-licking, n. Oversolicitous behavior... He made his way to the top only by pot-licking.

1945 H. Barron Mod. Plastics viii. 199 When the hardener is mixed into the resin then the mixture has a very limited *pot life. 1969 T. C. Thorstensen Pract. Leather Technol. xiv. 226 In this kind of finish the reactive components are usually mixed shortly before application, due to the limited pot life of the components. 1976 G. S. Ramaswamy Mod. Prestressed Concrete Design vii. 86 The pot-life of the mixture was 20 to 25 minutes at an ambient temperature of 30°C.

1797 Imrie in Edin. Phil. Trans. (1798) IV. 194 *Pot-like holes..hollowed out of the solid rock.

[1936 Industr. & Engin. Chem. Feb. 148/1 Shutting down a ‘line’ of aluminum cells or ‘pots’..is not a difficult or lengthy operation if properly performed.] 1951 Economist 29 Sept. 748/1 The drought had forced the huge hydro-electric installations on the Columbia River to reduce..power to the plants that provide aluminium. Already three ‘*potlines’ have been closed down. 1957 Times 12 Nov. (Canada Suppl.) p. vi/5 The power is brought down on the other side of the mountain, 10 miles away, to feed the potlines located by the deep water estuary of the Douglas channel. 1965 Wall St. Jrnl. 25 Feb. 32/2 Aluminum Co. of America said it will install a third 33,000-ton-a-year potline for producing primary aluminum at its Warrick County, Ind. plant.

1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., *Pot-lug, the handle of a jug; the two loops at the sides of the iron porridge-pot.

1814 J. Green Address on Bot. U.S. 41/2 Calendula officinalis. *Pot Marygold, Common. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 544/1 The pot-marigold..is the familiar garden plant with large orange-coloured blossoms. 1910 Daily Chron. 19 Feb. 9/6 Among the best annuals for town gardens are the..French and African marigolds..and the calendula or pot marigold. 1936 E. S. Rohde Herbs & Herb Gardening ix. 128 Marigolds, including the old Pot Marigold.., have for some years been coming into favour again. 1966 G. B. Foster Herbs for Every Garden iii. 77 The petals of pot marigold were used to color butter, cheese, custards and sauces.

1597 *Pot marjoram [see marjoram a γ]. 1629 J. Parkinson Parad. ii. cxxvi. 447 This kind of Marierome belongeth to that sort is called..In English Winter Marierome, or pot Marierome. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 464 Of Marjoram, there are several sorts..; the vulgar sort and Pot Marjoram is raised by slips. 1936 E. S. Rohde Herbs & Herb Gardening vii. 73 Pot Marjoram..is a larger and more branching plant than Sweet Marjoram. 1974 Page & Stearn Culinary Herbs 24 Pot Marjoram..is a dwarf shrub with erect densely hairy stems.

1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vne poterie, a *potte market, the place where pots are made.

1603 H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 141 Powring it into the bosome of his *pot-mate.

1624 Ford Sun's Darling i. i, I will..Swagger in my *potmeals.

1914 ‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions xxiv. 238 What an awful *pot-mess my cabin is in. 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Carry On! 64 ‘'Strewth!’, he murmurs under his breath, gazing at the littered floor in dismay... ‘'ere's a fine pot mess.’ 1926 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 835/2 The resulting pot-mess vanished all too soon. 1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 163 Potmess, a mixture of any- and everything; a big heap; confusion. 1962 Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 90/2 Pot mess, kind of stew very popular on the mess decks.

1529 More Dyaloge iii. Wks. 246/1 Among other such as himselfe to kepe a quot⁓libet and a *pot parlament vpon.

1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xl. 182 It [my nose] is well antidoted with *pot-proof-armour.

1598 R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo T. Rdr. ¶v b, These base fellowes I leaue in their Ale-houses, to take *pot-punishment of each other.

1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. B iij b, Forsooth they'l call it a *pot quarrell straight.

1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. vii. 213 A very ancient form of hand-mill is called the *pot querne. 1894 Nottingham. & Derbys. N. & Q. Aug. 109 A portion of a pot-quern,..found at Breaston.

1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §460/15 *Pot rassler or rastler, a dishwasher. 1968 R. F. Adams Western Words (rev. ed.) 234/2 Pot rastler, a logger's name for a dishwasher.

1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §819/1 *Pot rassling, -rastling or wrestling,..dishwashing or cooking.

1586 J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 95/1 They kept such *pot-reuels, and triumphant carousing, as none of them could discerne his beds head from the beds feet.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 577 The *pot-setting is a desperate service.

1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Water-Cormorant Wks. iii. 5/1 Hee's *pot-shaken, or out, two and thirty. 1893 Gunter Miss Dividends 195 All coming out of pot-shaped domes.

1611 Florio, Brianzesco, tipsie, drunken, *pot-sicke. 1872 Hardy Under Greenw. Tree I. ii. iii. 157 Every morning I see her eyes mooning out through the panes of glass like a pot-sick winder-flower.

1891 Kipling Light that Failed (1900) 273 Wastage of the Suakin-Berber line,..mounds of chairs and *pot-sleepers. 1900 Engineering Mag. XIX. 707/2 Pot Sleepers on the Great Indian Peninsula Ry.

1596 Bp. W. Barlow Three Serm. i. 117 Cup-shotten suertiships, and *potsmitten bargaines.

1850 P. Crook War of Hats 49 *Pot-songs..bawl'd in every street and lane.

c 1440 Promp. Parv. 411/1 *Potspone, or ladyl.

1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 148/2 *Pot Stands, triangular wood..each 0/3. 1947 [see back-drop (back- B)]. 1971 Cambr. Anc. Hist. (ed. 3) I. ii. xviii. 398 A biconical potstand has remote parallels at Büyük Güllücek, and in the Khirbet-Karak wares of the ‘Amūq and Palestine.

1875 R. F. Martin tr. Havrez' Winding Mach. 10 Steel tram wheels..made of a mild ‘*pot steel’ and annealed carefully in an oven after they are cast.

[1799 Rep. Comm. Distilleries Scot. in Parl. Papers 1803 XI. 727/2 Private families distilled Whiskey for their own use; and the Still they used was a large pot, globular.] Ibid. 730/2 Suppose then that Fig. 5 represents an old fashioned *Pot-Still. 1890 Daily News 23 July 2/8 Rums and pot-still whiskies would not be so injuriously affected. 1902 Daily Chron. 7 Jan. 6/3 This result Professor Hewitt declared he had attained by adding certain chemical substances to the ‘pot-still’. 1906 Ibid. 10 Apr. 3/6 This new proposal would put Lowland malt whisky and Campbeltown whisky, both made in pot-stills, on the same level as grain spirits. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 246 Ansighosa pokes in her potstill to souse at the sop be sodden enow and to hear to all the bubbles besaying. 1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest viii. 150 A very small, wizened old man crouched over a crude pot-still..; on the ground beside him stood a number of small flasks filled with the clear spirit.

1965 *Pot-stilled [see Mao tai].

1648 Leg. Capt. Jones 3 Arm'd against them like a man *pot-sure, They stint vaine stormes.

1638 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. i. (1818) 23 With his nose *pot-tipt, most bravely.

1972 J. Gathorne-Hardy Rise & Fall Brit. Nanny viii. 265 It is actually physiologically impossible to *pot train a child before the age of about six months. 1975 H. Jolly Bk. Child Care i. xi. 179 You cannot truly pot train a baby before he is physically mature enough to exercise some control over his bladder and bowels.

1961 Spectator 17 Feb. 218 One-year-olds are *pot-trained. 1966 ‘K. Nicholson’ Hook, Line & Sinker 11 Three sisters, the youngest only two and a half, and not fully pot-trained.

1960 L. Durrell Clea ii. ii. 126 Have you managed to annul your early *pot-training? 1975 H. Jolly Bk. Child Care i. xv. 217 If as a mother you never respond to your toddler's signals when he is about to wet his pants, he may give up trying to take the initiative himself and will probably be less co-operative with your efforts at pot training.

1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 217 The *Pot-trap..is a deep Earthen-Vessel set in the ground to the brim in a Bank or Hedge-row. 1884 G. E. Waring in Century Mag. Dec. 259/2 An unventilated pot-trap eight inches in diameter.

a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady ii. i, Haue you got the *pot verdugo?

1766 R. Whitworth Adv. Inland Navig. 42 Two, and sometimes three waggons go every week to Bridgenorth, and usually carry about eight tons of *pot-ware, to be conveyed to Bristol by water.

1912 C. N. Moody Saints of Formosa ix. 195 They threatened to..feed her on the *pot-washings with which the pigs are nourished.

1796 W. Marshall West Eng. I. Gloss. (E.D.S.), *Potwater, water for household purposes. 1886 Elworthy West Somers. Word-bk., Pot-water, water used for drinking and cooking, as distinguished from slop-water. 1898 Edin. Rev. Apr. 449 Available as pot-water for domestic use.

1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Pot-wheel.

1611 Cotgr. s.v. Envaisselé, Vn bel esprit envaisselé, a good *pot wit.

1802 D. Wordsworth Jrnl. (1941) I. 182 We then went to the *Pot-woman's and bought 2 jugs and a dish. 1918 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 June 5/4 A ‘potwoman’ at a public house applied for a summons for wages in lieu of notice. 1979 Listener 20 & 27 Dec. 854/4 The Thistle..had a three-cornered taproom. I once saw a pot-woman dance an impromptu fertility dance there.

1765 J. Wedgwood Let. 2 Mar. (1965) 29 This trade to our Colonies we are apprehensive of losing in a few years as they have set on foot some *Potworks there already. 1861 Smiles Engineers I. v. ii. 322 The brothers Elers..erected a potwork of an improved kind near Burslem. 1894 ― J. Wedgwood i. 2 There were few potworks anywhere else in that county. 1902 A. Bennett Anna of Five Towns xii. 328 Behind it..was a small, disused potworks. 1965 Punch 17 Feb. 244/1 The potworks expose their raw materials on their open marlbanks.

1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. iii. (1628) 59 The colewurt, the greatest *pot-wurt in time long past that our ancestors vsed.

1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3) 335 *Pot-wrestler, a scullion. Pennsylvania. 1873 Kansas Mag. Aug. 139/1 ‘Bullwhackers’,.., ‘pot-wrestlers’ and ‘ink-slingers’ are but a few of the common pet English names a politician must use in addressing his audience, in order to show them he is sufficiently familiar with their language. 1889 Farmer Americanisms 434/2 Pot-wrestler, a Pennsylvanian equivalent of the English ‘pot-wallopper’; a scullion. 1902 [see potwalloper 2]. 1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 44 Pot wrestler, dish washer. 1947 N.Y. Jrnl. American 18 Mar. 17/4 The off-center meatball has been endorsed by the chefs of the old world. No less a pot-wrassler than the King's own glorified the chuckwagon croquette as the ambrosia of the parked gulp.

1942 *Pot wrestling [see pot-rassling].

▪ II. pot, n.² Sc. and dial.
    (pɒt)
    [perh. in origin the same word as prec. (with which it is very generally identified). But used only in the north (Scotl. to Lincolnsh.) and esp. in districts where Scandinavian influence prevails; to be compared with Sw. dial. putt, pott, pit, water-hole, abyss, pit of hell.]
    A deep hole; a pit dug in the ground; e.g. † the shaft or pit of a mine (obs.); a hole out of which peat has been dug; a tan-pit.

1375 Barbour Bruce xi. 364 He [Bruce] gert men mony pottis ma Of a fut breid round, and all tha Var deip vp till ane manis kne. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxiv. 46 And hyd thame in a pete-pot all. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 227 [Bruce] Trynchis gart mak and pottis that war deip Into the erd with greit laubour and cuir. 1567–8 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 612 To serche out..the saidis..myndis [= mines], and to brek the ground, mak sinkis and pottis thairin. 1601 Charter in Dallas Stiles (1697) 769 Sinks, Syers, Gutters, Eyes, levals, Pots, Airholls. 1653 in A. Laing Lindores Abbey xx. (1876) 231 He had drawn leather furth of ye pott upon ane Sabboth. 1721, 1800 Peat pot [see peat1 4 d]. 1895 T. Ellwood Lakeland 45 The deep circular holes generally filled with water, from which peats have been dug, are called peat pots.

    † b. fig. An abyss; the pit of hell. Obs.

c 1500 Rowlis Cursing 151 in Laing Anc. Poet. Scotl., Thairfoir hy ȝow to the pott of hell. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxvi. 119 In the depest pot [Maitl. pit] of hell He smorit thame with smvke. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. v. 128 Deip in the sorofull grislie hellis pote. 1563 Winȝet Wks. (1890) II. 63 The botumles potis of filthines. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 149 Quhill I my self did chose the deide, To saif thé from the pot. [1865 Kingsley Herew. i, May he be thrust down with Korah, Balaam, and Iscariot, to the most Stygian pot of the sempiternal Tartarus.]

    c. A deep hole in the bed of a river or stream.

[1533 Aberdeen Regr. (1844) I. 148 Euery half net of the pott..xx s.] a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 29 About this time, a pot of the water of Brechin called Southesk, became suddenly dry, and for a short space continued so, but bolts up again. 1762 Bp. Forbes Jrnl. (1886) 164 You walk up the North-side of the Water..till you come to a deep Pool or Pot. a 1800 Earl Richard xxii. in Scott Minstr. Scot. Bord. (1802) II. 48 The deepest pot in a' the linn, They fand Erl Richard in. 1884 Nonconf. & Indep. 31 July 746/1 The river has cut its way through the rock, carving it into hollows,..and round holes which the natives call ‘pots’.

    d. A natural deep hole or pit in the ground, such as are found in limestone districts.

1797 Imrie in Edin. Phil. Trans. (1798) IV. 195 This pot is 940 feet above the level of the sea. 1874 Baring-Gould Yorksh. Oddities (1875) II. 110, I had examined several..of those curious pots which are peculiar to the Yorkshire limestone moors. These pots..are..hideous circular gaping holes opening perpendicularly into the bowels of the mountain. 1881 J. Fothergill Kith & K. xvi, He discovered some vast and awful-looking ‘pots’, crevasses of limestone, sinking for unknown depths into the ground.

    e. pot and gallows (Sc.), the same with pit and gallows. Aberd. (Jam.)
    f. (See quot.)

1812 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 48 In fields where the strata are not regular, there are often masses or pots of sandy soil, which absorb great quantities of water.

    g. Comb. pot-hole (local) = c, d; in Coal-mining, the hole left by the fall of a pot-stone; pot-peat, peat dug out of a pot or deep excavation; pot-stone, a cone-shaped mass of stone forming the base of a fossil tree-stem in a coal-mine.

1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. from Northumb., Cumb., Westmld., W. Yorksh.

▪ III. † pot, n.³ Obs.
    Also 6 potte.
    [Agrees in form and sense with Fr. Swiss dial. potte (also dial. pot, pout) lip, in the phrase faire la potte = faire la moue, ‘to make a lip’, to pout; see pout v.]
    A grimace; to make a pot at, to make a mouth at, to mow at. (In quot. 1566 applied to a popping sound.)

1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 638/2 They call it but a parable, and almoste make a pot at it. 1533 ― Answ. Poysoned Bk. ibid. 1130/1 Maister Masker..mocketh and moweth in that glasse, and maketh as many straunge faces and as many pretty pottes therein, as it were an olde rieueled ape. 1566 Withals Dict. 64 b/2 A potte made in the mouthe, with one finger, as children vse to doo, scloppus, vel stlopus.

    b. Comb. pot-finger (cf. quot. 1566 above).

1592 Arden of Feversham iv. iii. 9 Didst thou ever see better weather to run away with another man's wife, or play with a wench at pot-finger?

▪ IV. pot, n.⁴
    a. Short for pot-shot.

1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xvi, A tall man..took a cool pot at him with a revolver. 1900 Pollok & Thom Sports Burma vi. 212, I got a cool pot at one [gaur], and my favourite shot behind the ribs.

    b. Rugby Football. A dropped goal (see dropped ppl. a. 1 a). N.Z.

1959 N.Z. Listener 24 July 6/4 Five potted goals—that was when a pot was worth four points.

▪ V. pot, n.⁵ slang (orig. U.S.).
    (pɒt)
    [prob. f. Mexican Sp. potiguaya marijuana leaves; perhaps influenced by pot n.¹; cf. pod n.² 1 c.]
    1. = marijuana 1 a.

1938 [see jagged a.2 b]. 1951 N.Y. Times 13 June 24/4 Progression from sneaky pete to pot to horse to banging. 1952 Amer. Speech XXVII. 28 Pot,..marijuana cigarettes... (Maurer, potiguaya, marijuana leaves after pods removed.) 1959 Oxford Mail 9 Nov. 1/6 The detectives invited their Greenwich Village pals to a big party..with poetry readings, bongo drums and plenty of ‘pot’ (marijuana) to smoke. 1961 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself 209 In Mexico, however, down in my depression with a bad liver, pot gave me a sense of something new. 1964 S. Bellow Herzog (1965) i. 87 You have to do more than take a little gas, or slash the wrists. Pot? Zero! Daisy chains? Nothing! Debauchery? A museum word. 1965 Punch 22 Dec. 930/3 ‘Like a spot of pot, Jean?’ he said. ‘I never touch it,’ I said archly. 1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 iii. 63 ‘But we don't repeat what we hear,’ said another girl. ‘None of us smoke Beaconsfields anyway. We're all on pot.’ 1968 New Scientist 22 Aug. 371/2, I am not defending the behaviour of these students and of course I don't agree with them that ‘pot’ is harmless. 1972 J. L. Dillard Black English vii. 289 The teacher probably should not let illusions of knowledge about the ghetto tempt him into using sentences like John and Mary are smoking pot. 1973 [see lsd2]. 1975 D. Lodge Changing Places ii. 63 He took an extreme radical position on all such issues as pot, sex, race. 1977 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXV. 464/2 His son occasionally smokes pot.

    2. attrib. and Comb., as pot liquor, pot smoke, pot-smoker, pot-smoking vbl. n. and ppl. a.; pot-head, pothead (see head n.¹ 7 e); pot party, a party held for the smoking of marijuana.

1959, etc. [see head n.1 7 e]. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Mar. 219/4 A girl..herself something of a pothead, who introduces Evans to the joys of the weed.

1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 92 Pot liquor..; brew from marijuana seeds and stalks.

1967 Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. 1. 40/8 Authorities said that as many as 25 teenagers attended drug sessions held twice a month at different Randolph homes by one group, and that others also held ‘pot’ parties. 1971 D. E. Westlake I gave at the Office (1972) 219 The media have some leniency..as for instance when magazines stage pot parties. 1976 B. Lecomber Dead Weight v. 68, I couldn't quite imagine even an Antiguan Customs officer suspecting Herr Ruchter of holding riotous pot-parties. 1978 J. Krantz Scruples iii. 66 An occasional pot party was as anti-establishment a gathering as he attended.

1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 iii. 64 Their rising coils and clouds of pot smoke. 1967 Guardian 8 July 6/4 The bored pot-smoker looking for some better kick. 1971 New Scientist 11 Mar. 533/3 Pot smokers have a lowered sexual drive. 1976 H. Nielsen Brink of Murder xi. 99 You must be calling on a pot smoker. Take me along?

1964 Punch 18 Mar. 413/1 ‘Pot-smoking’ parties, gaming sessions. 1967 Guardian 3 Feb. 4/4 They said, there is no evidence of a direct link between pot-smoking and addiction to hard narcotics. 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard ii. 39 He didn't have the stereotype-copper look..but appeared more as one expected a pot-smoking nymphomaniac to look. 1977 Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 37/2 Kerr-McGee officials later quoted from the letter when they described Silkwood's pot-smoking proclivities to reporters.

▪ VI. pot, n.⁶
    (pɒt)
    Colloq. abbrev. of potentiometer.

1943 C. L. Boltz Basic Radio iii. 56 Radio workers always refer to the ‘pot’. 1948 Electronics July 120/2 The output voltage z of the multiplying pot is proportional to its angular rotation. 1953 R. Bretz Techniques Television Production xix. 401 The first thing the student operator learns about the audio console is that the fader dials, or ‘pots’, in the middle of the panel each controls [sic] a separate source of sound. 1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 311/2 (Advt.), No matter what your pot requirements, they take a turn for the better when you contact Gamewell Division.

▪ VII. pot, v.¹
    (pɒt)
    [f. pot n.¹ in various senses. Cf. Du. potten (Kilian) to put in a pot, hoard up.]
    I. To drink from a pot.
    1. intr. To drink beer or other liquor out of a pot; to indulge in drinking; to tipple. Also to pot it. Obs. or arch.

1594–1863 [see potting vbl. n.1 1]. 1622 S. Ward Woe to Drunkards (1627) 35 Oh but there are few good Wits..now a dayes but will Pot it a little for company. 1628 Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] lxxxiv. 242 It is lesse labour to plow, then to pot it: and vrged Healths do infinitely adde to the trouble. 1638 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. iv. I j, If thou doest love thy flock, leave off to pot. 1646 W. Eldred Gunner's Glasse To Rdr., Gunners, that had rather spend their time in potting and canning.

    II. To put into a pot.
    2. a. trans. To put up and preserve (flesh, butter, or other provisions, usually salted or seasoned), in a pot, jar, or other vessel. Also, to summarize, put into ‘potted’ form (see potted ppl. a. 3 a). Also absol.

1616 R. Carpenter Past. Charge 50 Manna..being potted vp for a common remembrance lasted many yeares. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 126, I will assist your house⁓keeper,..to pot and candy, and preserve. 1754 Fielding Voy. Lisbon Wks. 1882 VII. 106 Stores of butter, which we salted and potted ourselves. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 58 Prawns are potted on the South coasts.

fig. 1815 Earl of Dudley Lett. 6 Sept. (1840) 110 Pompeii may be considered as a town potted..for the use of antiquarians in the present century. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 311 It often appears in a family, as if all the qualities of the progenitors were potted in several jars. 1927 Year's Work Eng. Stud. 1925 42 After preliminaries, the matter is divided into: the effect of Function upon Sound..; of Emotion upon Sound..; and of Gliederung... The statistics and argument can hardly be ‘potted’ here.

    b. Sugar Manuf. To transfer (crude sugar) from the coolers to perforated ‘pots’ or hogsheads, for the molasses to drain off.

1740 Hist. Jamaica 321 From the Boiler the Liquor is emptied into a Cooler, where it remains till it is fit to be potted. 1750 G. Hughes Barbadoes 250 About twenty-four hours after the sugar is potted, the small round hole in the bottom of each pot is unstopped. 1839–87 [see potting vbl. n.1 3 b].

    c. To encapsulate (an electrical component or circuit) in a liquid insulating material, usu. a synthetic resin, which sets solid.

1950 W. W. Stifler High-Speed Computing Devices xvi. 426 Tests..showed that it was possible to pot printed circuits in a special casting resin in such a fashion as to permit the plugging in of the complete subassemblies. 1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics vi. 279 The plastics in which electronic components are potted usually contain bacteria. 1971 J. H. Smith Digital Logic i. 5 The whole assembly is usually ‘potted’ into a block to form a module.

    3. † a. To put (earth) into a flower-pot (obs.); b. To set (a plant) in earth in a flower-pot for cultivation; to plant in or transplant into a pot. Also, pot off, to transplant seedlings into individual pots; pot on, to move a plant from one pot into a larger one; pot out, to plunge potted plants into a bed in the open garden; pot up, to move seedlings or larger plants into pots.

1626 Bacon Sylva §529 Pot that earth, and set in it stock-gilly-flowers, or wall-flowers. 1664 Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense April 65 Pot them [Indian tuberoses] in natural (not forc'd) earth. 1793 Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2) IV. 35, I potted them into second size pots. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 300 The young plants require to be potted off singly into the smallest-size pots. 1870 W. Robinson Alpine Flowers for Eng. Gardener i. 63 This is a better way than sowing in pots,..from which they require to be ‘potted off’. 1903 D. McDonald Garden Comp. Ser. ii. 113 When in the third leaf, pot singly into 48-sized pots. 1916 M. Hampden Flower Culture ii. 39 Now [sc. March] is the time for..potting up clumps of hardy plants from the garden. 1926 E. T. Brown Year in my Flower Garden 58 Lift and pot roots of Solomon's Seal. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Aug. 167/1 When the leaves of the small plants touch each other in the boxes it is time to pot them up. 1950 O. Sitwell Noble Essences ix. vi. 139 The gentle gold of the industrial haze lay lightly on the rich beds of tulips, carnations or begonias, so neatly potted out. 1952 C. E. L. Phillips Small Garden ix. 77 Nurselings in small pots are ‘potted-on’ into bigger ones when their roots have filled up the first one. 1958 Listener 12 June 982/2 They [sc. amaryllis plants] will throw off bulbils from the main bulb. These can be taken off and potted up. 1978 R. Gorer Growing Plants from Seed v. 69 The seedlings are potted up separately in very small pots and progressively potted on.

    4. Billiards. = pocket v. 4.

1860–5 Slang Dict. s.v., ‘Don't pot me’, term used at billiards, when a player holes his adversary's ball—generally considered shabby play. 1885 Even. Standard 18 Dec. (Farmer), After making three he potted his opponent's ball. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 14 Mar. 10/1 With a gallery of gentlemen-cadets, he was too proud to pot the white.

    5. a. To shoot or kill (game) for the pot, i.e. for cooking (cf. pot-hunter, -shot); to ‘bag’; gen. to bring down or kill by a pot-shot (a man or animal). colloq. or slang.

1860 Reade Cloister & H. viii, Martin had been in a hurry to pot her, and lost her by an inch. 1860 Russell Diary in India I. xvii. 266, I heard a good deal of ‘potting pandies’, and ‘polishing-off niggers’. 1881 J. Grant Cameronians I. iv. 60 Sir Piers..thought it very slow work compared with..potting a man-eater from a howdah. 1889 Clark Russell Marooned (1890) 235 He'll have to show himself, and if he does I'll pot him. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 27 Oct. 6/1 Their evident object was to pot off the gunners and the staff officers, about whom the bullets whistled viciously.

    b. intr. To take a pot-shot, to shoot (at.)

1854 Illustr. Lond. News 11 Nov. 489/1 The French have been..sending in their skirmishers close to the walls, to pot at the embrasures. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xli, Turning out to be potted at like a woodcock. 1898 in Globe 4 Feb. 4/5 If..I didn't see him potting away quite cheerfully!

    c. trans. To seize, win, secure, ‘bag’. Also, in Rugby Football (N.Z.), to score (a dropped goal).

1862 W. B. Cheadle Jrnl. Trip across Canada (1931) 48 Worked at harness-making & potted much money during term. 1900 H. Nisbet Sheep's Clothing Prol. iii. 26 However, he's in with us now, since he has potted the girl. 1903 Daily Chron. 12 Feb. 3/1 He has the scissors of a ready book-maker, and will ‘pot’ extracts from Mr. Roosevelt's writings and messages ‘till the cows come home’. 1904 Ibid. 21 Nov. 8/5 Six of the eight points have been ‘potted’, and not a defeat sustained. 1959 [see pot n.4 b].

    III. 6. a. To outdo, outwit, deceive. Now slang.

1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 185 Pot him Iacke: pot him Iacke? nay pot him Iugge. To pot the drunkarde, the Iugge is the dugge. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxxi. (1612) 156 The Clowne, no doubt, that potted Pan [won from him the woman whom Pan courted] lackt arte to glose and flatter. 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 154 It is no hard matter to puzzle and to pot you with authority of Josephus in the selfesame story of Gen. 14. 1855 Taylor Still Waters ii. (Farmer), A greater flat was never potted. 1880 Millikin in Punch's Almanack Feb., Crab your enemies,—I've got a many, You can pot 'em proper for a penny.

    b. Austral. slang. To hand (someone) over for trial, to inform on. Cf. pot n.¹ 13 k.

1911 A. Wright Gambler's Gold 138 Why should I pot the bloke? He done me a good turn, an' th' police is no good to me. 1916 J. B. Cooper Coo-oo-ee ix. 108 ‘Yer see,’ he explained, ‘they've got to try to hang some cove or else they'd lose their job. The more men they pot the better they're fixed in their jobs. See?’ 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. ii. xi. 207 A few general expressions concerned with school life:..to pot someone or to put someone's pot on, to inform on. 1953 ‘Caddie’ Sydney Barmaid xl. 230 What dirty swine has potted me?

    † 7. To cap (verses). Obs.

1597 G. Harvey Trimming Nashe Wks. (Grosart) III. 37 Ile teach thee howe to pot verses an houre together. 1598 Stow Surv. viii. (1603) 72 The boyes of diuerse Schooles did cap or pot verses.

    IV. 8. ‘To manufacture, as pottery or porcelain; esp. to shape and fire, as a preliminary to the decoration’: cf. potting vbl. n.¹ 2. Also freq. intr.

1914 R. Fry Lett. (1972) II. 377 Vanessa and I have been potting all day... We went when the potter wasn't there and got the man to turn the wheel. 1967 B. Jefferis One Black Summer (1968) i. 1 The grounds and buildings would be full of summer school students; doctors who longed to pot; dressmakers who yearned to try their hands at sculpture. 1968 Canad. Antiques Collector June 12/1 The Rockingham China Works..began to produce china (porcelain) in 1826. The factory ceased to manufacture towards the end of 1841. Many fine porcelain wares..were potted in this relatively brief period. 1971 J. White Left for Dead 68 All I've got to do is to teach myself to pot... I've always been interested in making pottery. 1976 J. G. Hurst in D. M. Wilson Archaeol. Anglo-Saxon Eng. vii. 323 Stamford ware is finely potted on a fast wheel and fired in a developed single-flue kiln.

    V. 9. colloq. To cause (a baby or young child) to use a chamber-pot. Also absol.

1943 A. Medley Your First Baby xviii. 180 With children who hardly wake up, perform with their eyes closed and drop off again, it is well worth while to pot them and to know that they will sleep dry and comfortable. 1948 B. Goolden Jig-Saw ii. 9, I prefer them [sc. babies] house-trained... One feeds and pots automatically. 1957 H. Croome Forgotten Place iv. 51 I'm not going to pot him or anything. I think early habit training is such a mistake. 1973 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 26 Oct. 7/2 She has poured the last coffee and sat back for the first time since potting the baby at 7:30 that morning.

▪ VIII. † pot, v.² Sc. Obs.
    [f. pot n.²]
    a. trans. To dig pits in, fill with pits. b. To dig a trench about; to mark off by a trench. c. To put in a pit.

1375 Barbour Bruce xi. 388 On athir syde the way, weill braid, It wes pottit, as I haf tald. 1595 Aberdeen Regr. (1848) II. 129 The said..yard dyk ascendis south eist or thairby,..as the same was presentlie pottit and merkit. 1887 Donaldson Suppl. to Jamieson, To Pot, Pott, to pit, trench, or mark off by furrow, as in boundaries of land... To plant or set in a pit, as in potting march stones: also, to pit and cover, as in potting or pitting potatoes [for] winter.

▪ IX. † pot, v.³ Obs.
    [f. pot n.³]
    intr. To make a grimace; to mock. Hence † ˈpotting vbl. n.

1549 Chaloner Erasm. on Folly S iv, Thei on the other syde did potte at him. 1553 Short Catech. in Lit. & Doc. Edw. VI (Parker Soc.) 504 At length was he [Jesus]..mocked with potting, scorning, and spitting in his face. 1596 Danett tr. Comines (1614) 326 Me they potted at, as in such cases is vsuall in Princes courts.

▪ X. pot
    obs. form of pote v., put v.

Oxford English Dictionary