subs. (colloquial).—1. To steal; to SNEAK (q.v.): see PRIG. Hence (venery) = to steal a man’s wife or mistress—generally TO POACH UPON ANOTHER MAN’S PRESERVES: cf. PIRATE 2. Also (racing) = to get the best of a start: esp. by unsportsmanlike methods.—GROSE (1785); BEE (1823).
c. 1531. COPLAND, The Hye-way to the Spyttel-hous [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, IV. 41]. Prolyng and POCHYNG to get somwhat.
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Pocher de labeur d’autruy, to POCH into, or encroach upon, another man’s imployment, practice in trade.
1620. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, Philaster, iv. 1. His greatest fault is he hunts too much in the purlieus; would he leave off POACHING.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, II. iv. You shall be admitted into the PRESERVE; but remember, no POACHING.
1862. Cornhill Magazine, vi., 651. In their wanderings they fall in with other shoals, and some get lost, and some are famished to death, and some are POACHED, and some get hooked.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 March. Seward maintained that the start was a false one, and that his opponent POACHED full five yards before he (Seward) moved.
2. (old).—To blacken the eyes. Fr. les yeux pochés au beurre noir.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 23. With grinders dislodg’d, and with peepers both POACH’D.
