Emily Dickinson Lexicon

POTH'ER, n. [This word is vulgarly pronounced bother. Its origin and affinities are not ascertained.]

1. Bustle; confusion; tumult; flutter. [Low.] – Shak. Swift.
2. A suffocating cloud. – Drayton.

POTH'ER, v.i.

To make a blustering ineffectual effort; to make a stir.

POTH'ER, v.t.

To harass and perplex; to puzzle. – Locke.

POT'-HERB, n.

An herb for the pot or for cookery; a culinary plant. – Arbuthnot.

POTH'ER-ED, pp.

Harassed and perplexed.

POTH'ER-ING, ppr.

Perplexing; puzzling.

POT'-HOOK, n.

1. A hook on which pots and kettles are hung over the fire.
2. A letter or character like a pot-hook; a scrawled letter. – Dryden.

PO'TION, n. [Fr. from L. potio; poto, to drink.]

A draught; usually, a liquid medicine; a dose. – Bacon. Milton.

POT'LID, n.

The lid or cover of a pot. – Derham.

POT'-MAN, n.

A pot-companion.

POT'SHERD, n. [pot and Sax. sceard, a fragment, from scearan, to shear; D. potscherf; G. scherbe.]

A piece or fragment of a broken pot. – Job ii.

POT'STONE, n.

Potstone appears to be indurated black talck, passing into serpentine. It has a curved and undulatingly lamellar structure, passing into slaty. – Cyc. Potstone is of a greenish gray color. It occurs in massive, or granular concretions. – Ure. Potstone is a variety of steatite. – Cleaveland.

POT'TAGE, n.

Broth; soup. [See Potage, the more correct orthography.]

POT'TED, pp.

Preserved or inclosed in a pot; drained in a cask.

POT'TER, n. [from pot.]

One whose occupation is to make earthen vessels. – Dryden. Mortimer.

POT'TERN-ORE, n.

A species of ore, which, from its aptness to vitrify like the glazing of potter's ware, the miners call by this name. – Boyle.

POT'TER-Y, n. [Fr. poterie; from pot.]

1. The vessels or ware made by potters; earthen ware, glazed and baked.
2. The place where earthen vessels are manufactured.

POT'TING, n. [from pot.]

1. Drinking; tippling. – Shak.
2. In the West Indies, the process of putting sugar in casks for draining. – Edwards.

POT'TING, ppr.

Preserving in a pot; draining, as above; drinking.

POT'TLE, n. [W. potel, a bottle; from pot.]

1. A liquid measure of four pints.
2. A vessel; a pot or tankard.

POT-VAL'IANT, a. [pot and valiant.]

Courageous over the cup; heated to valor by strong drink. – Addison.

POUCH, n. [Fr. poche, a pocket or bag, a purse-net, the paunch; Ir. pucan; G. bauch, D. buik, Sw. buk, Dan. bug, the belly, from bulging and extending.]

1. A small bag; usually a leathern bag to be carried in the pocket. – Swift.
2. A protuberant belly.
3. The bag or sack of a fowl, as that of the pelican.

POUCH, v.t.

1. To pocket; to save. – Tusser.
2. To swallow; used of fowls; whose crop is called in French, poche. – Derham.
3. To pout. [Not used.] – Ainsworth.

POUCH'ED, pp.

Pocketed; swallowed.

POUCH'ING, ppr.

Pocketing; saving; swallowing.