potman
(ˈpɒtmən)
[f. pot n.1 + man n.1]
† 1. A man addicted to pots of liquor; a toper.
| 1589 Nashe Anat. Absurd. Wks. (Grosart) I. 45 A man..if lasciuious, good in some English deuise of verse, to conclude, a passing potman, a passing Poet. 1685 Wood Life 23 Nov. (O.H.S.) III. 171 The pot men and juniors carry all before them. |
2. A man employed at a public-house to attend to the pots and serve the liquor. (Cf. pot-boy.)
| 1846 Worcester, Potman,..a servant at a public house. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1862) II. 345 He got a situation as potman to a public-house. 1860 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xiii, The potmen thrust the last brawling drunkards into the street. 1898 G. B. Shaw You never can Tell ii. 255 He's at the Bar... A potman, eh?... No, sir: the other bar. 1925 D. Garnett Sailor's Return 22 The next morning the potman came to the inn. 1936 Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 243 Barmaids do the work, with maybe a barman, potman or cellarman to help. 1972 Classification of Occupations (Dept. Employment) II. 399/2 Bar potmen (wash glasses in licensed bar). |
3. dial. A dealer in earthenware.
| 1889 in N.W. Linc. Gloss. (ed. 2). |
4. In various manufacturing processes: a man who attends to the filling, emptying, firing, etc., of pots (see quots.).
| 1874 J. A. Phillips Elem. Metallurgy 581 In order to desilverise by the aid of this arrangement, the potman sinks the ladle sideways to the bottom of the kettle. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §143 Pot man (alkali);..charges shallow iron pans with salt and sulphuric acid, attends to firing, and supervises process until product is ready for salt cake furnace. Ibid., Pot man (lead); puts pig and scrap lead into pot and tends and feeds fire beneath it which melts lead [etc.]. 1932 Amer. Speech VII. 269 Pot man, the man who tends the boilers in which steam is generated for drilling. |