pot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: pŏt
ipa: /pɒt/
rhymes: -ɒt
enpr: pät
ipa: /pɑt/
Forms: form: pots
Etymology: From Middle English pot, potte, from Old English pott (“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”), German Low German Pott (“pot”), German Pott (“pot”), Swedish potta (“chamber pot”), Icelandic pottur (“tub, pot”), Old Armenian պոյտն (poytn, “pot, earthen pot”). Also, Old Norse pottr (“pot, tub, basin”).
The sense of ruin or deterioration was originally a general allusion to "being chopped up and tossed in a (normally fiery) pot, like a piece of meat" (i.e. to get wasted or done with (by someone)). The 'clean' slang term which was used in reference to toilet rooms and lavatories apparently derives from English chamberpots, although now usually encountered as potty in the context of children's toilet training.
Senses: synonyms: cookpot
cooking pot
glosses: A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food, possibly excluding saucepans (see usage notes).
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A vessel (usually earthenware) used with a seal for storing food, such as a honeypot.
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A vessel used for brewing or serving drinks: a coffeepot or teapot.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A vessel used to hold soil for growing plants, particularly flowers: a flowerpot.
examples: text: Shit or get off the pot.
text: “Clinton,” Gail cried from outside, “are you going to sit on the pot all day?”
ref: 2011, Ben Zeller, Secrets of Beaver Creek, page 204:
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A vessel used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot; (figuratively, slang) a toilet; the lavatory.
synonyms: word: can
word: chamber pot
word: potty
word: shitpot
word: bedpan
word: can
word: chamber
word: chamber pot
word: chemical toilet
word: commode
word: Cousin John
word: crapper
word: gazunder
word: guzunder
word: honey bucket
word: honeypot
word: Jerry
word: jerry
word: john
word: johnny
word: jordan
word: latrine
word: mingo
word: necessary stool
word: pan
word: pee pot
word: pisspot
word: piss pot
word: po
word: pot
word: potty
word: potty-chair
word: shitbucket
word: shitcan
word: shitpot
word: slop bucket
word: stool
word: stool of easement
word: throne
word: thunder mug
word: toilet
word: urinal
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A crucible: a melting pot.
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A pot-shaped trap used for catching lobsters or other seafood: a lobster pot.
synonyms: lobster pot
lobster trap
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A pot-shaped metal or earthenware extension of a flue above the top of a chimney: a chimney pot.
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A perforated cask for draining sugar.
examples: text: "So kindly keep the vainglorious enumeration of your pots for the benefit of those village idiots who compose your particular set of boozing companions."
ref: 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 85:
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
An earthen or pewter cup or mug used for drinking liquor.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2009, Deborah Penrith et al., Live & Work in Australia, page 187:
glosses: Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
A glass of beer in Australia whose size varies regionally but is typically around 10 fl oz (285 mL).
synonyms: word: middy
word: schooner
qualifier: Victoria
examples: Rowten Pot
qualifier: archaic except in place names
glosses: Pothole, sinkhole, vertical cave.
glosses: A shallow hole used in certain games played with marbles. The marbles placed in it are called potsies.
examples: text: After his arrest, his prospects went to pot.
glosses: Ruin or deterioration.
glosses: Any of various traditional units of volume notionally based on the capacity of a pot.
examples: text: 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...
ref: 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 12:
glosses: An iron hat with a broad brim worn as a helmet.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A pot-shaped non-conducting (usually ceramic) stand that supports an electrified rail while insulating it from the ground.
examples: text: No one's interested. You need to sweeten the pot.
topics: card-games
gambling
games
poker
synonyms: kitty
pool
glosses: 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.
examples: text: a pension pot
text: a savings pot
glosses: An allocation of money for a particular purpose.
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: A favorite: a heavily-backed horse.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1994, Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction:
glosses: Clipping of potbelly (“a pot-shaped belly, a paunch”).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: Clipping of potshot (“a haphazard shot; an easy or cheap shot”).
glosses: A plaster cast.
glosses: Alternative form of pott: a former size of paper, 12.5 × 15 inches.
Derived terms: a chicken in every pot
a watched pot never boils
a watched pot never boils over
beauty won't make the pot boil
bedja pot
bough pot
chamber pot
chamberpot
chimney-pot hat
coffeepot
coffee-pot
coffee pot
cooking-pot
cookpot
cook pot
craypot
crock pot
dry pot
glue-pot
go to pot
grease pot
honeypot
honey pot
honey-pot ant
honey pot ant
hot pot
hot-pot
ink pot
jam pot
jam-pot
kedgeree pot
keep the pot boiling
lobster-tailed pot
log pot
long pot
main pot
melting-pot
moka pot
monkey pot
mud pot
neti pot
not have a pot to piss in
not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of
one pot
one-pot
one-pot synthesis
paint-pot
paint pot
pan pot
peat pot
pee-pot
pee pot
pelican pot
pepper-pot
pepper pot
pinch pot
pint pot
piss pot
pisspot
pitch-pot
pity pot
plant pot
poacher's pot
porridge pot
pot ale
pot-au-feu
pot au feu
pot-bellied
pot-belliedness
pot belly
pot-belly
potbelly
potboil
pot-boiler
potboiler
pot boiler
pot-bound
pot boy
pot brownie
pot calling the kettle black
pot cheese
pot committed
pot-companion
pot-et-fleur
pot-girl
pot hat
pot hider
pot holder
potholder
pot-hole
pothole
pot hole
pot-hook
pot-house
pot-in-pot
pot lace
pot lead
pot life
pot likker
pot limit
pot liquor
pot-luck
pot luck
pot man
pot marigold
pot metal
pot mod
pot noodle
pot odds
pot of money
pot o' one
pot out
pot-pie
potpie
pot pie
pot-plant
pot plant
pot pourri
potpourri
pot roast
pot scrubber
pot scrubber brush
pot-sherd
potsherd
pot shop
potshot
potsticker
pot still
pot stirrer
pottage
potted plant
potter
pottery
potty
pot up
pot-valiancy
pot-valiant
pot-valor
pot-walloper
pot-walloping
pot wheel
press pot
put the pot on
quart-pot
reel-pot
sandy pot
shitpot
side pot
smudge pot
split pot
steel pot helmet
stir the pot
stock pot
stockpot
swill-pot
talk the legs off a pot
tatie pot
teapot
tea-pot
tea pot
there's a lid for every pot
thunder pot
tin-pot
tin-pot dictator
toss-pot
try-pot
try pot
two pot screamer
upset the pot
watering pot
white-pot
you can't get a quart into a pint pot
Related terms: sense: East Asian round-bottomed pot
word: wok
sense: used for cooking in pots
word: stove
sense: used for cooking in pots
word: cooker
sense: used for cooking in pots
word: multicooker
sense: used for cooking in pots
word: potholder
sense: used for cooking in pots
word: lid