pot

See also: Pot, pōt, pǫt, pot-, and pót-

English

Cooking pot on a stove.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) enPR: pŏt, IPA(key): /pɒt/
  • Rhymes: -ɒt
  • (US) enPR: pät, IPA(key): /pɑt/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English pot, potte, from Old English pott (“a pot”) and Old French pot ("pot"; probably from Frankish *pott); both Old English and Frankish from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot”), from Proto-Indo-European *budnós (“a type of vessel”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Pot (“pot”), Dutch pot (“pot”), Low German Pott (“pot”), German Pott (“pot”), Swedish pott (“pot”), Icelandic pottur (“tub, pot”), Old Armenian պոյտն (poytn, “pot, earthen pot”).

The sense of ruin or deterioration was originally euphemistic for shit (as in go to shit), from pot's use for its containers. The slang term for toilets and the lavatory similarly derive from the earlier chamberpots although now usually encountered as potty during children's toilet training.

Noun

pot (plural pots)

  1. A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food.
  2. Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
    1. A vessel (usually earthenware) used with a seal for storing food, such as a honeypot.
    2. A vessel used for brewing or serving drinks: a coffee or teapot.
    3. A vessel used to hold soil for growing plants, particularly flowers: a flowerpot.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
        He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
    4. (archaic except in fixed expressions) A vessel used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot; (figuratively, slang) a toilet; the lavatory.
      Shit or get off the pot.
      • 2011, Ben Zeller, Secrets of Beaver Creek, p. 204:
        “Clinton,” Gail cried from outside, “are you going to sit on the pot all day?”
    5. A crucible: a melting pot.
    6. A pot-shaped trap used for catching lobsters or other seafood: a lobsterpot.
    7. A pot-shaped metal or earthenware extension of a flue above the top of a chimney: a chimney pot.
    8. A perforated cask for draining sugar.
    9. (obsolete) An earthen or pewter cup or mug used for drinking liquor.
    10. (Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania) A glass of beer in Australia whose size varies regionally but is typically around 10 fl oz (285 mL).
      • 2009, Deborah Penrith & al., Live & Work in Australia, p. 187:
        There are plenty of pubs and bars all over Australia (serving beer in schooners – 425ml or middies/pots ~285ml), and if you don′t fancy those you can drink in wine bars, pleasant beer gardens, or with friends at home.
  3. (archaic except in place names) Pothole, sinkhole, vertical cave e.g. Rowten Pot
  4. (slang) Ruin or deterioration.
    After his arrest, his prospects went to pot.
  5. (historical) An iron hat with a broad brim worn as a helmet.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 12:
      The pot is an iron hat with broad brims: there are many under the denomination in the Tower, said to have been taken from the French...
  6. (rail transport) A pot-shaped non-conducting (usually ceramic) stand that supports an electrified rail while insulating it from the ground.
  7. (gambling) The money available to be won in a hand of poker or a round of other games of chance; (figuratively) any sum of money being used as an enticement.
    No one's interested. You need to sweeten the pot.
  8. (Britain, horse-racing, slang) A favorite: a heavily-backed horse.
  9. (sports) The act of causing a ball to fall into a pocket in cue sports such as billiards.
  10. (slang) Clipping of potbelly: a pot-shaped belly, a paunch.
    • 1994, Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction:
      Fabienne: I wish I had a pot.
      Butch: You were lookin' in the mirror and you wish you had some pot?
      Fabienne: A pot. A pot belly. Pot bellies are sexy.
      Butch: Well you should be happy, 'cause you do.
      Fabienne: Shut up, Fatso! I don't have a pot! I have a bit of a tummy, like Madonna when she did "Lucky Star". It's not the same thing.
  11. (slang) Clipping of potshot: a haphazard shot; an easy or cheap shot.
    • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
      England were shipping penalties at an alarming rate - five in the first 15 minutes alone - and with Wilkinson missing three long-distance pots of his own in the first 20 minutes, the alarm bells began to ring for Martin Johnson's men.
  12. (chiefly East Midlands, Yorkshire) A plaster cast.
  13. (historical) Alternative form of pott: a former size of paper, 12.5 × 15 inches.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Verb

pot (third-person singular simple present pots, present participle potting, simple past and past participle potted)

  1. To put (something) into a pot.
    to pot a plant
  2. To preserve by bottling or canning.
    potted meat
  3. (cue sports) To cause a ball to fall into a pocket.
  4. (cue sports) To be capable of being potted.
    The black ball doesn't pot; the red is in the way.
  5. (transitive) To shoot with a firearm.
    • Encyclopaedia of Sport
      When hunted, it [the jaguar] takes refuge in trees, and this habit is well known to hunters, who pursue it with dogs and pot it when treed.
  6. (intransitive, dated) To take a pot shot, or haphazard shot, with a firearm.
  7. (transitive, colloquial) To secure; gain; win; bag.
  8. (Britain) To send someone to gaol, expeditiously.
  9. (obsolete, dialect, Britain) To tipple; to drink.
    • Feltham
      It is less labour to plough than to pot it.
  10. (transitive) To drain.
    to pot sugar, by taking it from the cooler, and placing it in hogsheads, etc. with perforated heads, through which the molasses drains off
    (Can we find and add a quotation of B. Edwards to this entry?)
  11. (transitive, Britain) To seat a person, usually a young child, onto a potty or toilet, typically during toilet teaching.
    Could you please pot the children before sending them to bed?
  12. (chiefly East Midlands) To apply a plaster cast to a broken limb.
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Etymology 2

Possibly a shortened form of Mexican Spanish potiguaya (“marijuana leaves”) or potaguaya (“cannabis leaves”) or potación de guaya (literally “drink of grief”), supposedly denoting a drink of wine or brandy in which marijuana buds were steeped.

Noun

pot (uncountable)

  1. (slang, uncountable) Marijuana
Synonyms
  • See Thesaurus:marijuana.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

Clipping of potentiometer.

Noun

pot (plural pots)

  1. (slang, electronics) A simple electromechanical device used to control resistance or voltage (often to adjust sound volume) in an electronic device by rotating or sliding when manipulated by a human thumb, screwdriver, etc.
Derived terms
  • slide pot, a sliding (linear) potentiometer typically designed to be manipulated by a thumb or finger
  • thumb pot, a rotating potentiometer designed to be turned by a thumb or finger

Etymology 4

Clipping of potion.

Noun

pot (plural pots)

  1. (role-playing games) Clipping of potion.

References

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch pot.

Noun

pot (plural potte)

  1. pot; jar

Albanian

Etymology

From Romance *pottus (“pot”).

Noun

pot m (indefinite plural pota, definite singular poti, definite plural potat)

  1. mill-hopper, flower-bin
  2. little boy

Aromanian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From a Vulgar Latin *poteō, from Latin possum (formed analogically in post-Classical Latin on the basis of potens, the present participle of possum). Compare Romanian putea, pot.

Verb

pot (third-person singular present indicative poati/poate, past participle pututã)

  1. I can, could, am able to.

Basque

Noun

pot

  1. kiss

Catalan

Verb

pot

  1. third-person singular present indicative form of poder

Czech

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *potъ (“sweat”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pot/

Noun

pot m, inanimate

  1. sweat

Declension

Further reading

  • pot in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • pot in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɔt/
  • Rhymes: -ɔt
  • audio(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch pot, further etymology unclear. Cognates are only found in the northern West Germanic languages. Possibly a loan from Celtic.

Noun

pot m (plural potten, diminutive potje n)

  1. jar, pot
  2. (Belgium) cooking pot
    Synonym: kookpot
  3. (slightly pejorative) dyke (lesbian)
  4. (Netherlands, vulgar) loo, crapper (toilet)
Derived terms

Etymology 2

See etymology on the main entry.

Verb

pot

  1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of potten
  2. imperative of potten

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Middle French pot, from Old French pot (“pot”), from Vulgar Latin pottum, pottus (“pot, jar”), from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot, jar, tub”), from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a kind of vessel”). More at pot.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /po/
  • audio(file)
  • (Belgium) IPA(key): /pɔ/
  • Audio (Belgium)(file)

Noun

pot m (plural pots)

  1. (common, original sense) pot, jar, vase (often specified after its intended content which follows after à, e.g. pot à épices (“spice jar”))
  2. cooking pot; (culinary) dish
  3. (colloquial) drink, jar, bevvy
  4. (colloquial) do (UK), bash, drinks party
  5. pot, kitty, pool (of money staked at cards etc.)
  6. ancient measure, containing two pintes
  7. paper size, about 40 by 31 cm
  8. (slang, vulgar) arse, bum, backside

Derived terms

References

  • Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition

Further reading

Middle Dutch

Etymology

Unknown.

Noun

pot m

  1. pot, jar
  2. can, jug

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

Further reading

  • “pot (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • “pot”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Norman

Etymology

From Old French pot (“pot”), from Vulgar Latin pottum, pottus (“pot, jar”), from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot, jar, tub”), from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a kind of vessel”).

Noun

pot m (plural pots)

  1. (Jersey) pot

Derived terms

Old French

Etymology 1

From Vulgar Latin pottum, pottus (“pot, jar”), from Proto-Germanic *puttaz (“pot, jar, tub”), from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a kind of vessel”). More at pot.

Noun

pot m (oblique plural poz or potz, nominative singular poz or potz, nominative plural pot)

  1. pot (storage/cooking vessel)
Descendants
  • English: pot (borrowed)
  • French: pot

References

  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (pot, supplement)

Etymology 2

see poeir.

Verb

pot

  1. third-person singular present indicative of poeir
Descendants

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *potъ (“sweat”)

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)

Noun

pot m inan

  1. sweat

Declension

Derived terms

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [pot]

Verb

pot

  1. first-person singular present indicative of putea.
    te pot vedea, prostule.
    I can see you, idiot.
  2. first-person singular present subjunctive of putea.
    am să pot să merg cu tine mâine dimineață
    I'll be able to go with you tomorrow morning.
  3. third-person plural present indicative of putea.
    calmează-te, nu pot să-ți străbată gândul.
    calm down, they can't read your mind.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *potъ.

Noun

pȍt m (Cyrillic spelling по̏т)

  1. sweat

Synonyms

Slovene

Etymology 1

From Proto-Slavic *pǫtь.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpóːt/
  • Tonal orthography: pọ́t

Noun

pót f (genitive potí, nominative plural potí)

  1. way, road
Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Etymology 2

From Proto-Slavic *potъ.

Pronunciation

  • Tonal orthography: pọ̑t

Noun

pót m inan (genitive potú or póta, uncountable)

  1. sweat
Declension

Tatar

Noun

pot

  1. (archaic) A unit of volume: 1 pot, the volume of 16 kg of water.
  2. (archaic) A unit of weight: 1 pot = 40 qadaq = 16.380 kg .

Declension

See also

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English port.

Noun

pot

  1. port
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