▪ I. poacher1
(ˈpəʊtʃə(r))
Also potcher.
[f. poach v.2 + -er1.]
1. a. One who poaches or trespasses in pursuit of game; one who takes or kills game unlawfully.
| 1667 Evelyn Publ. Employm. Misc. Writ. (1805) 552 The young potcher with his dog and kite, breaking his neighbours hedges, or trampling o're his corn for a bird not worth sixpence. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 265 Huntsman, Hunter, Fowler, Fisher,..Game, Pocher. 1680 Otway Orphan iii. i. 810 So Poachers basely pick up tir'd Game Whilst the fair Hunter's cheated of his Prey. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 12 They are shot at by poachers; traced by their footsteps in the snow; caught in springs. 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. i, A keeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a keeper turned inside out. |
| transf. 1702 Yalden æsop's Fables vi. 1 Ren, an old poacher after game, Saw grapes look tempting fine. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 11 Feb. 10/1 To escape the jaws of the large pike, the only permitted poachers which exist at the lake. |
b. a poacher turned gamekeeper: one who now preserves the interests he previously attacked; conversely, a gamekeeper turned poacher.
| 1945 Times 4 Aug. 5/2 Mr. Aneurin Bevan at the Ministry of Health..is conspicuously the poacher turned gamekeeper. 1977 Times 12 Feb. 12/6 Mr Camp has been working against the Railways Board in the interests of the unions... Is he then a poacher turned gamekeeper? 1978 Broadbent 27 Mar. 4/2 Stuart Wilson, former joint MD of Yorkshire Television..has been arguing with the ferocity of gamekeeper turned poacher against ITV's intended inroads into the fourth channel. |
2. a. (U.S.) The widgeon, Mareca americana: said to be so called from its habit of seizing the food for which other ducks have dived. (But cf. pochard.)
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. 1905 C. C. Townsend Birds of Essex County, Mass. x. 130 The Baldpate, being unable to dive, makes use of diving Ducks to obtain food in deep water, and has therefore received in some places the name of ‘Poacher’. 1923 Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 126. 96 Such behavior has earned for the baldpate the local name of ‘poacher’. 1973 Nature West Coast (Vancouver Nat. Hist. Soc.) 163 Some birds [sc. American widgeon] feed on sea-weeds, often snatching them from the bills of diving birds. Hence the popular name ‘poacher’. |
b. A small marine fish belonging to the family Agonidæ. Cf. sea-poacher s.v. sea n. 23 d.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. 1961 E. S. Herald Living Fishes of World 252/2 The cold-water marine poachers and their relatives look much like some of the South American fresh-water armored catfishes. 1978 A. Wheeler Key Fishes N. Europe 224 Poachers or Pogges. A small family (Agonidae) of mainly Arctic marine fishes. |
3. Paper-making. One of the series of engines by which rags, etc., are comminuted, washed, bleached, and reduced to pulp; a poaching-engine.
| 1877 W. Arnot in Jrnl. Soc. Arts XXVI. 91/2 The second engine is called the ‘poacher’, the roll of which..does little more than mix the stuff and the bleach liquor. 1883 R. Haldane Workshop Receipts Ser. ii. 392/1 Reduce them [rags] to half-stuff, and as soon as possible empty into the poacher..and bleach with great care. 1906 Beadle Papermaking II. 65. 1906 J. Castle (Wolvercote Paper Mill) in Let., Potcher or Poacher. |
4. attrib. and Comb. (sense 1), as poacher-court, poacher-herd, poacher-work; poacher('s) pocket, a large concealed pocket in a coat.
| 1784 Burns Ep. J. Rankine viii, I..brought a Paitrick to the grun'... Somebody tells the Poacher-court The hale affair. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 767/2 ‘It was no poacher work, Matthew’, he said. 1897 Crockett Lad's Love xxii. 226 It was a portentous thing to see the poacher-herd so keen on the proprieties. 1925 [see hare-pocket]. 1956 G. E. Evans Ask Fellows who cut Hay ii. 35 Inside the slop were two long hanging, or poacher's, pockets so that a shepherd could very easily conceal a couple of rabbits. 1974 Country Life 21 Mar. 688/2 The suit..is a three-piece garment with extremely wide lapels, poacher pockets, and baggy trousers with turn-ups. 1976 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Nanny Bird xviii. 247 He took up..a manilla envelope which he zipped with care into a poacher's pocket on the inner side of his waterproof jacket. |
Hence ˈpoachery nonce-wd.
| 1831 T. L. Peacock Crotchet Castle ix. (1887) 109 Witchery, devilry, robbery, poachery, piracy, fishery, gipsy-astrology. |
▪ II. poacher2
(ˈpəʊtʃə(r))
[f. poach v.1 + -er1.]
A vessel or pan for poaching eggs, usu. with shallow cup-like compartments in which an egg can be cooked over boiling water. Also, a vessel or pan in which fish, etc. can be poached (see poach v.1 1).
| 1861 Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. xxxiii. 827 For inexperienced cooks, a tin egg-poacher may be purchased. 1868 M. Jewry Model Cookery 82/1 The egg may also be done in a regular egg-poacher. 1884 [see egg-poacher s.v. egg n. 6 b]. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 433/1 Buffalo steam egg poachers. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 452/1 Use a wide pan..or a specially constructed egg poacher. 1975 J. Beard et al. Cooks' Catal. 399 Poachers come in a range of sizes for everything from a miniature mackerel to a king-sized salmon... All poachers have a common feature—a rack that protects your fish from the direct heat source beneath and enables you to lift the whole fish from the pot intact. Ibid. 439 All of the so-called egg poachers on the market, however they operate, whatever they do, are not actually poaching at all. A true poached egg is cooked in water, not over it, and not in steam—an ‘egg poacher’, with its cuplike insert, actually steams an egg. 1976 West Lancs. Evening Gaz. 15 Dec. i. 12/4 Two Poachers and steamer, 75p each. |