arch. or dial. Also 7 bow-pott, 7– bow-pot. [f. BOUGH sb. + POT: cf. BEAU-POT.] A pot or other vessel for holding boughs, etc., for ornament; a flower-pot; in 19th c. also a bunch of flowers, bouquet.
1583. J. Higins, Junius’ Nomenclator, 388. Bough-pots, or flower pots set in the windows of private houses.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 13 Sept. The wind … flung down a great bow-pott that stood upon the side-table.
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scand., III. iii. Not … twig but what’s in the bough-pots out of the window.
1841. Blackw. Mag., L. 206. Bough-pots decorate their windows.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, i. ‘We have made her a bow-pot.’ ‘Say a bouquet … ’tis more genteel.’
1884. Leisure Hour, April, 233/1. Removed to make place [in grates] for the ‘bough-pots,’ or posies.
