pot

B1
US /pɑt/ UK /pɒt/
verb noun Freq #2430

Meanings

  1. 1
    verb

    plant in a pot

    I potted the palm.

  2. 2
    noun

    Pothole, sinkhole, vertical cave.

    Rowten Pot

  3. 3
    noun

    Ruin or deterioration.

    After his arrest, his prospects went to pot.

  4. 4
    noun

    An iron hat with a broad brim worn as a helmet.

    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...

  5. 5
    noun

    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.

  6. 6
    noun

    An allocation of money for a particular purpose.

    a pension pot

  7. 7
    noun

    Clipping of potbelly (“a pot-shaped belly, a paunch”).

    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.

  8. 8
    noun

    Clipping of potshot (“a haphazard shot; an easy or cheap shot”).

    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.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *puttaz Old English pott Proto-Germanic *puttaz Frankish *pottder. Vulgar Latin pottum Old French potbor. Middle English pot English pot 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…

View etymology graph →

Thesaurus

Synonyms
5 noun · the money available to be... kittypool
Word family
Derived forms alepotbeanpotbeerpotchamberpotclaypotcoalpotcoffee-potcoffeepotcooking-potcookpotcrackpotcraypot
Related forms cookerlidmulticookerpotholderstove

Send feedback

Optional — only if you'd like a reply.