[f. WASH v.]
† 1. A servant employed to wash pots; spec. the designation of a servant employed at the Inns of Court. Obs.
1570. in Black Bks. Linc. Inn (1897), I. 373. 10 s. to Ralph Richardson, the washpot in the buttery, for 6 months’ wages. Ibid. (1645), II. 367. The Washpot 20s., the Laundress £4, [etc.].
1678. Ravenscroft, Engl. Lawyer, II. i. 15. I was an under-Butler, or Wash-pot in the Inns of Court.
1816. Temple, Ch. Reg. Burials. Thomas Lock Washpot of the honble Society of the Inner Temple.
2. A vessel for washing one’s hands. Obs. exc. fig. in allusion to Ps. lx. 8.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lx. 8. Moab is my washpotte, ouer Edom wil I stretch out my shue.
1635–56. Cowley, Davideis, II. 341. Sev’en comely blooming Youths … in their hands sev’en silver washpots bear.
1810. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), II. viii. 285. In an age when every London citizen makes Lochlomond his wash-pot, and throws his shoe over Ben-Nevis.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, viii. 166. He had to fly, with broken washpots.
1884. Daily News, 5 Feb., 3/1. French philosophers were using it [China] as a washpot for their satires on institutions nearer home.
3. A vessel containing melted tin, into which iron plates are plunged to be converted into tin-plate.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1253, s.v. Tin-plate.
4. A vessel used in separating silver from lead.
1879. G. Gladstone, Mining, Silver, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 112/2. It is usual to have small pots, called temper or wash-pots, placed between every second crystallising pot.
