poach

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpoʊtʃ/
  • Rhymes: -əʊtʃ

Etymology 1

Verb

poach (third-person singular simple present poaches, present participle poaching, simple past and past participle poached)

  1. (transitive) To cook something in simmering liquid.
    • 1931, Francis Beeding, “1/1”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps‎:
      Eldridge closed the despatch-case with a snap and, rising briskly, walked down the corridor to his solitary table in the dining-car. Mulligatawny soup, poached turbot, roast leg of lamb—the usual railway dinner.
  2. (intransitive) To be cooked in simmering liquid
    • Francis Bacon
      The white of an egg with spirit of wine, doth bake the egg into clots, as if it began to poach.
  3. To become soft or muddy.
    • Mortimer
      Chalky and clay lands […] chap in summer, and poach in winter.
  4. To make soft or muddy.
    Cattle coming to drink had punched and poached the river bank into a mess of mud.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Tennyson to this entry?)
  5. (obsolete) To stab; to pierce; to spear, as fish.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Carew to this entry?)
  6. (obsolete) To force, drive, or plunge into anything.
    • Sir W. Temple
      his horse poaching one of his legs into some hollow ground
  7. (obsolete) To begin and not complete.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French pocher (“poke”), from Old French pochier (“poke out”).

Verb

poach (third-person singular simple present poaches, present participle poaching, simple past and past participle poached)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To take game or fish illegally.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To take anything illegally or unfairly.
  3. (transitive, intransitive) To cause an employee or customer to switch from a competing company to your own company.
Derived terms
Translations

Anagrams

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