Meanings
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1
noun
a small pouch inside a garment for carrying small articles
My trousers had four pockets – two at the front and two at the back.
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2
noun
an opening at the corner or on the side of a billiard table into which billiard balls are struck
I sunk three balls in the far-right pocket.
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3
noun
in anatomy, a saclike structure in animals, for example marsupials, gophers, or pelicans
Pelicans can fit fish into their pockets.
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4
noun
a small isolated group of people
They were concentrated in pockets inside the city.
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5
noun
a local region of low pressure or descending air that causes a plane to lose height suddenly
The passengers screamed when the plane hit a pocket.
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6
noun
a supply of money
They dipped into the taxpayers' pockets.
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7
noun
a hollow concave shape made by removing something
I made a pocket in the mashed potato, into which I poured gravy.
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8
noun
in bowling, the space between the headpin and the pins behind it on the right or left
The ball hit the pocket and gave them a perfect strike.
Etymology
From Middle English pocket (“bag, sack”), from Anglo-Norman poket, Old Northern French poquet, poquete, diminutive of poque, poke (“bag, sack”) (compare modern Norman pouquette and modern French pochette from Old French pochete, from puche), from Frankish *pokō (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *pukkô, *pukô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Equivalent to poke + -et. Doublet of pochette. Cognate with Middle Dutch poke, Alemannic German Pfoch (“purse, bag”), Old English pocca, pohha (“poke, pouch, pocket, bag”), Old Norse poki (“bag, pocket”). Compare the related p…