Pot

subs. (old colloquial).—A quart: the quantity contained in a POT. Whence as verb. = to drink: also (American) TO POTATE; POTTING = BOOZING (q.v.); POTATIONS (recognised) = a drinking-bout; POT-HOUSE (or -SHOP) = a beer-shop, a LUSH-CRIB (q.v.); POT-HOUSE (or COFFEE-HOUSE) POLITICIAN = an ignorant, irresponsible spouter of politics; POT-COMPANION = (1) a cup-comrade, and (2) an habitual drunkard: as also = POT-FURY (also = drunkenness), -KNIGHT, -HEAD, -LEACH, -MAN, -POLISHER, -SUCKER, -WALLOPER, POTATOR, POTSTER, TOSS-POT, and ROB-POT; POT-PUNISHMENT = compulsory tippling; POT-QUARREL = a drunken squabble; POT-SICK (or -SHOT) = drunk: POT-SURE (-HARDY, or -VALIANT) = emboldened by liquor: cf. DUTCH COURAGE (B. E., c. 1696, and GROSE, 1785); POT-BELLIED = fat, bloated in stomach as from guzzling: also POT-BELLY (or -GUTS) = a big-bellied one; POT-REVEL = a drunken frolic; POTMANIA (or POTOMANIA) = dipsomania; SIR (or MADAM) PINT-POT = a host (or hostess); POT-BOY (or -MAN) = a bar-scullion: whence POT-BOY-DOM.

  1560.  T. BECON, Prayers and Other Pieces (1844), 276. Good-wife PINTPOT.

  1600.  The Weakest goeth to the Wall, iii. 4. Now mine Hoste ROB POT, emptie kan, Beere sucker.

  1594.  J. LYLY, Mother Bombie, iii. 2. Dro. What, Risio, how sped’st thou after thy POTTING? Ris. Nay, my master rung all in the taverne, and thrust all out in the house.

  1597.  JOSEPH HALL, Satires, I. iii. With some POT-FURY … they sit and muse.

  1598.  R. HAYDOCK, trans. A Tracte Containing the Artes of Curious Paintinge, etc., The Translator to the Reader. But these base fellowes I leave in their Ale-houses, to take POT-PUNISHMENT of each other once a day, till &c.

  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 4, 438. Peace, good PINT-POT: peace, good tickle-brain. Ibid., 2 Henry VI., ii. 3. And here’s a POT of good double beer. Ibid. (1602), Othello, ii. 3. I learned it in England, where, indeed, they are most potent in POTTING: your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander … are nothing to your English.

  1614.  R. C., The Times’ Whistle [E.E.T.S.], 59, l. 1795.

  1620.  FELTHAM, Resolves, 84. It is less labour to plow, than TO POT IT.

  1630.  TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes [NARES].

  c. 1650.  BRATHWAITE, Barnaby’s Journal (1723), III. 119.

  1651.  CARTWRIGHT, The Royall Slave, v., 4. Arch. Faith Landlord Molops, I’d have sworne thou hadst beene of a better Nature, than to remember POT-QUARRELS.

  1653.  WALTON, The Compleat Angler, 181. Let’s each man drink a POT for his morning’s draught.

  1653.  URQUHART, Rabelais, I. xl. Well-antidoted with POT-PROOF armour.

  1659.  The Legend of Captain Jones.

  1703.  WARD, The London Spy, xv. 366. He had made himself POT-VALIANT with his Countrey-mans Liquor.

  1710.  SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, trans. Quevedo. For Fudling they shall make the best POT COMPANION in Switzerland knock under the Table.

  1715.  HEARNE, Diary, 11 Oct. Tho’ he [a posture-master] is a well-grown fellow, yet he will appear in all the deformitys that can be imagined, as huncht-back’d, POTT-BELLYD, sharp-breasted.

  1729.  SWIFT, Directions to Servants, iv. They will wait until you slip into a neighbouring ale-house to take a POT with a friend.

  c. 1741.  ARBUTHNOT and POPE, Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus. Let him surprize the Beauty he adores at a disadvantage; survey himself naked, diverted of artificial charms, and he will find himself a forked stradling Animal, with bandy legs, a short neck, a dun hide, and a POT-BELLY.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 179. A long bench, such as usually graces a POT-HOUSE porch. Ibid., 266. He told me … they could only be COFFEE-HOUSE POLITICIANS. Ibid. (1771), The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, l. 30. Like a man who has drunk himself POT-VALIANT, I talked to her in such a style of authority and resolution, as produced a most blessed effect.

  1761.  GRAY, To Mason, 22 Jan. He appears to be near forty, a little POT-BELLIED and thick-shouldered, otherwise no bad figure.

  1772.  R. GRAVES, The Spiritual Quixote, bk. IV. ch. viii. You POT-GUTTED rascal!

  1803.  LAMB, To Coleridge, 13 April. Last night … a pipe, and some generous Port, and King Lear had their effects as solacers. I went to bed POT-VALIANT.

  1834.  SOUTHEY, The Doctor, xliv. Barnabee, the illustrious POTATOR, saw there the most unbecoming sight that he met with in all his travels.

  1836.  M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, xii. The little POT-VALIANT master, primed with two tumblers of grog, in defiance of the Captain’s presence, fairly fastened on him.

  1837.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, li. ‘Perhaps we had better retire,’ whispered Mr. Pickwick. ‘Never, sir,’ rejoined Pott, POT-VALIANT in a double sense, ‘never.’ Ibid., lii. A sequestered POT-SHOP on the remotest confines of the Borough.

  1849.  C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke, xiii. It is a part of his game to ingratiate himself with all POT-BOY-DOM.

  1849.  MACAULAY, The History of England, v. The coarse dialect which he had learned in the POT-HOUSES of Whitechapel.

  1851.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 17. I could get a POT-BOY’S place again, but I’m not so strong as I were, and its slavish work in the place I could get.

  1855.  C. KINGSLEY, Westward Ho! xv. She was too good for a poor POT-HEAD like me.

  1860.  DICKENS, The Uncommercial Traveller, xiii. The POTMEN thrust the last brawling drunkards into the street.

  1864.  B. HEMYNG, Eton School Days, viii. Bird’s-eye’s patrons would … sit in his cottage and smoke and drink beer, for they were potent at POTTING.

  1870.  JUDD, Margaret, iii. The old man is still mecurial; but his pot-valiantry is gone.

  1876.  S. DOWELL, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England, I. 200. The increase in drinking … carried your English in potency of POTTING above even ‘your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander.’

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xiv. I have contracted fatal habits … one … is that I want a nip in a POT-HOUSE before retiring to rest. Ibid., xxiv. You could never git through it if you paid a quid for every POT o’ beer.

  2.  (sporting).—A large sum; the collective amount of money staked; the pool. Hence (racing) = a horse backed for a large amount, a favourite; TO POT, or TO PUT ON THE POT = to wager large sums (BEE, 1823); and TO UPSET THE POT = to beat the favourite.

  1840.  Sporting Review, iv. 119. It needed only to lay against all, to insure a prize proportioned to the POT put on.

  1859.  LEVER, Davenport Dunn [TAUCHNITZ], I. 191. The horse you have backed with a heavy POT.

  1864.  Derby-day, 2. The knowing ones … POTTED their money on him without hesitation. Ibid., 170. The trainer of course found the ready money to buy a share in the ‘Horse and Jockey,’ but that’s not to be wondered at considering the POT he made when Ascapart won the Derby.

  1868.  OUIDA, Under Two Flags, v. All them fiddlers have lost such a sight of money by you; them bookmakers have had such a lot of POTS UPSET by you.

  1870.  L. OLIPHANT, Piccadilly, v. 196. “Harrie … went down to the Derby on Heiter’s drag, and won a POT on the French horse under his judicious advice.”

  1883.  Graphic, 17 Nov., 494. 2. Medicus, the great Cambridgeshire POT, and Thebais, who showed well in that race, were among the runners.

  1887.  W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Straight Tip to all Cross Coves, 1.

  1891.  The Sportsman, 28 Feb. Homeward Bound, the medium of a plunge here last week, was the POTTED article for the United Service Selling Hunters’ Steeplechase.

  1894.  GEORGE MOORE, Esther Waters, vi. My great-grandfather had a POT of money, but it all went.

  3.  (sporting).—A prize. [Usually given in cups, mugs, or pots.] Whence POT-HUNTER (or -FISHER) = (1) a professional athlete of the baser sort—one who, of good quality, enters for events he is sure to win for the sake of the POTS offered as prizes; and (2) = a man who seeks a large BAG (q.v.) without regard to the rules and usages of sport. Also POT-HUNTING = going in for sport for profit alone.—GROSE (1785).

  1879.  Scribner’s Magazine, Aug., 506. With no other let or hindrance than those which the gory POT-HUNTERS compel.

  1882.  W. W. GREENER, The Gun and its Development, 570. Poachers and POT-HUNTERS are encouraged, that they may keep the tables of their friends in office well supplied with game. Ibid., 575. The Chinese have an original and effective manner of ‘POT-HUNTING’ after Wild-fowl.

  1884.  Daily News, 9 Feb., 5, 3. Common birds are better off in England than abroad where they are shot by way of sport, and POTTED by pot-hunters.

  1885.  The Field, 12 Dec. Some protection should be taken against POT-HUNTING.

  1891.  National Observer, 14 Feb., 332. But does Mr. Everard seriously pretend … he was contemplating the rivalry of the two in a gigantic POT-HUNTING ‘competeetion’?

  4.  (common).—A person of importance; an adept: also BIG POT.

  1892.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 70. The genuine POT.

  1891.  Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Dick pointed out some of the BIG POTS of the day, but there did not seem much union of hearts among them.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xiv. Grandfather sold things over the counter. The father ’s some tremendous POT in the financial way, and got his baronetcy for a royal visit.

  1900.  HUME NISBET, In Sheep’s Clothing, 131. He is rather a BIG POT as a preacher I hear.

  1905.  SIR HENRY POTTINGER, Flood, Fell, and Forest, II. xv. 133. But ordinary mortals have a natural dislike to returning with empty baskets, and some people—not necessarily ‘POT-HUNTERS’—like to eat trout.

  5.  (nautical).—A steward.

  6.  (medical students’).—Sixpence: FIVE-POT PIECE = 2s. 6d.

  1885.  Household Words, 20 June, 155. To many drinkers the coin … was known as a POT, because it was the price of a POT (q.v., sense 1], or quart of ‘half-and-half.’

  7.  (stock exchange).—In pl. = North Staffordshire Railway Ordinary Stock. [The railway serves the Potteries.]

  8.  (Winchester College).—The POT = the Canal. POT-CAD = a workman at the saw mills; POT-GATES = lock-gates; POT-HOUSER = a jump into the canal from the roof of a house called POT-HOUSE.—MANSFIELD (c. 1840).

  9.  (venery).—The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE.

  1678.  COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft [Works (1725), 260].

  10.  (old).—A urinal; a chamber. Hence AS GOOD A PIECE AS EVER STRODE A POT = as good a girl as ever pissed.

  Adj. (back slang).—Top.

  Verb. (old colloquial).—1.  To kill: specifically (modern) to shoot from cover: also TO POT-SHOT. Hence POT-SHOT, subs. = (1) a shot so made; (2) a shot made for the sake of a BAG (q.v.) without regard to the rules and usages of sport; and (3) a shot at random, as into a flight of birds without definite aim: cf. SNIPE. Whence TO POT AWAY = to keep up a rain of shot.

  1858.  Edinburgh Courant, 2 Sept. All … were firing POT-SHOTS at him, while he was rushing about with a tulwar determined to sell his life dearly.

  1860.  W. H. RUSSELL, My Diary in India, II. 327. Taking POT-SHOTS at their sentries and pickets.

  1860.  Chambers’s Journal, xiii. 90. A few … amuse themselves by POTTING at us, but they are in too great a state of fear to make good practice.

  1861.  T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, xl. My gracious sovereign pays me seven and sixpence a day; for which sum I undertake to be shot at on certain occasions and by proper persons…. But that doesn’t include turning out to be POTTED AT like a woodcock.

  1861.  C. READE, The Cloister and the Hearth, viii. Martin had been in a hurry TO POT her, and lost her by an inch.

  1866.  G. A. SALA, A Trip to Barbary, xv. Tourists … are in the habit of bringing Devisme’s fowling-pieces with them, and POTTING the monkeys by way of a chasse-cafe.

  1883.  Daily Telegraph, 23 March, 5, 3. The English father of a family has not yet taken to the evil course of waiting for the tax-collector behind a stone wall and POTTING him with a blunderbuss.

  1884.  The Saturday Review, 15 March. All the pretty shy beasts … are POTTED by cockneys.

  1882.  W. W. GREENER, The Gun and its Development, 531. The desire of puntsmen TO POT as many birds as possible by one shot.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxiii. He and old Crib were a stunning pair for POT-SHOOTING. Ibid., xvi. Take a cool POT at him with a revolver.

  1884.  PHILLLPPS-WOLLEY, Trottings of a Tenderfoot, ch. iii. There is none of the credit due to the quiet POT-SHOT which a quick snap-shot at a buck on the jump might earn.

  1889.  Time, Aug., 151. The proper thing for men, with their powerfuller brains, is not to set on to a woman as though they despise her, but just to POT away at her, unless she carries it too far, when it is necessary to go for her.

  1891.  Murray’s Magazine, Aug., 211. I came here about a week ago TO POT at the pigeons, and I’ve done very well, so far.

  1900.  HUME NISBET, In Sheep’s Clothing, 26. ‘He’ll carry the trade mark of Elola … for the rest of his life.’ ‘Serve him jolly well right for not shooting straight. However, he is in with us now since he has POTTED the girl.

  2.  See subs., senses 1 and 2.

  3.  (billiards).—To pocket a ball.

  1885.  Evening Standard, 18 Dec. After making three he POTTED his opponent’s ball.

  1891.  The Sportsman, 26 March. Roberts, opening with a fluke by POTTING the red, ran up in his best style a capital 132.

  4.  (common).—To ‘take a rise out of’; TO DO (q.v.); to be revenged; TO LAND (q.v.).

  1855.  TOM TAYLOR, Still Waters Run Deep, ii. 2. A greater flat was never POTTED.

  1880.  MILLIKIN, Punch’s Almanack, St. Valentine’s Day.

  5.  (old).—To excel: as TO POT verses = to cap them.

  1599.  J. STOW, Survey of London, 53. The boies of different schooles did cap or POTTE verses.

  TO GO TO POT, verb. phr. (common).—To perish; to be done for: as by death, bad seasons, pecuniary difficulties, and so forth.—RAY (1670). [SMYTHE PALMER, Folk-Etymology, thinks POT = a pit (i.e., of destruction): An alternative suggestion, apparently supported by most of the (especially the earlier) quotations, is that POT = a cooking, or a refiner’s melting pot.] Whence GO TO POT! = ‘Go to the devil’; ‘Go hang yourself: Fr. Sucré! and Va-te-faire-suer! POTTED-OUT = buried. See HOP THE TWIG and QUISBY.

  1394.  LANGLAND, Piers Ploughman, 627. Vnder a POT he schal be put · in a pryvie chambre.

  1512–3.  DOUGLAS, Eneados (1710), 108, 16.

  1525.  TYNDALE, An Answer to Sir Thomas More, etc. [Parker Society (1850), 110]. Then GOETH a part of little flock TO POT, and the rest scatter.

  1552.  LATIMER, Sermons, 183. The more wicked, the more lucky: but they that pertaine to God … must GO TO THE POT, they must suffer here according to the Scriptures.

  1563.  HAKLUYT, Voyages, ‘Ballad of Robert Baker.’

  1573.  New Custom, ii. 3.

  1601.  Jack Drum’s Entertainment (1616), i. 218. Flawn. Why, the weakest GOE TO THE POT still. Mam. That jest shall saue him.

  1610.  SHAKESPEARE, Coriolanus, i. 4. First sold. See they have shut him in. All. TO THE POT, I warrant him.

  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Aussitost meurt vache comme veau. As soon the young, as old, GOES TO THE POT.

  1612.  WEBSTER, The White Devil, iv. 4. Pigeons though they destroy never so much corn, the farmer dare not present the fowling-piece to them: why? because they belong to the lord of the manor; whilst your poor sparrows, that belong to the Lord of Heaven, they GO TO THE POT for’t.

  1648.  The Life of Anthony à Wood, Aug. [BLISS], 39. He was conniv’d at and kept in his place, otherwise he had infallibly GON TO THE POT.

  1662.  Rump Songs, ii. 44.

  1665.  R. HEAD, The English Rogue, (1874), I. x. 77. We will make his Till spring a leak for it, or his Goods GO TO POT, and break him at last.

  1680.  DRYDEN, Prologue to Sophonisba at Oxford, 15 (Globe, 443).

  1686.  H. HIGDEN, A Modern Essay on the Tenth Satyr of Juvenal, 13.

  1712.  ARBUTHNOT, The History of John Bull, I. vi. John’s ready money, book debts, bonds, mortgages, all went into the lawyers’ pockets. Then John began to borrow money on Bank Stock, East India Bonds: and now and then a farm WENT TO POT.

  1771.  SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 61. We went by sea to another kingdom, called Fife, and, coming back, had like to have GONE TO POT in a storm.

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 31.

  1840.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Merchant of Venice.’

  1889.  Cornhill Magazine, July, 46. For the potato is really GOING TO POT.… Constitutional disease and the Colorado beetle have preyed too long upon its delicate organism.

  COLLOQUIALISMS are:—A POT (or PITCHER) OFT SENT TO THE WELL IS BROKEN AT LAST = the inevitable must happen: see PITCHER, subs. 1; TO AGREE LIKE POT AND KETTLE = to wrangle: see BLACK-ARSE; AS LIKE AS ONE POT’S LIKE ANOTHER = very like indeed; A LITTLE POT IS SOON HOT = (1) a little suffices, and (2) little people (or minds) are soon angered (B. E., c. 1696); TO MAKE THE POT BOIL (or KEEP THE POT BOILING) = (1) to provide necessaries, and (2) to keep things going: Fr. (artists’) faire du métier: see POT-BOILER; TO MAKE A POT WITH TWO EARS = to set the arms akimbo; TO PUT ON THE POT = (1) see POT, subs. (2) = to overcharge, (3) = to exaggerate, (4) = to bully, (5) = to snub, or patronise (also TO PUT ON THE BIG POT): see POT, subs. 4, and (6) = to provide the necessaries of life; TO PUT ON THE POT = to banish, to extinguish; TO MAKE A POT AT = to grimace; TO MAKE POTS AND PANS = ‘to spend freely, then beg’ (BEE, 1823); TO GIVE MOONSHINE IN A MUSTARD-POT = to give nothing (RAY, 1670); ‘IF YOU TOUCH POT, YOU MUST TOUCH PENNY = ‘You must pay for what you have.’ Also see PISS, POT-AND-PAN, OLD POD, POT-SHOT, POT-HAT, HONEY-POT, &c.

  1481.  Reynard the Foxe [Percy Society]. A POT MAY GOO SO LONGE TO WATER THAT AT LAST IT COMETH TO BROKEN HOOM.

  1535.  COVERDALE, Bible, Eccles. xiii. HOW AGREE THE KETELL AND THE POT TOGETHER.

  1546.  HEYWOOD, Proverbs, s.v. LITTLE POT, SOONE HOT.

  1593.  SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 1, 5. Now, were I not A LITTLE POT AND SOON HOT.

  1661.  HEYLYN, History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 212. So poor that it is hardly able to KEEP THE POT BOILING for a parson’s dinner.

  1678.  COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft [Works (1725), 236].

  1812.  COMBE, Dr. Syntax, I. xxiii. No fav’ring patrons have I got,    But just enough TO BOIL THE POT.

  1836.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xxx. Mr. Pickwick … went slowly and gravely down the slide…. “KEEP THE POT A BILIN’, sir!” said Sam; and down went Wardle … Mr. Pickwick, and then Sam,… following closely upon each other’s heels.

  1837.  MARRYAT, Snarleyyow; or The Dog Fiend, ix.

  1847.  BUCKSTONE, Nine too Many, i. Well, then, I was saying that I furnish the means to KEEP THE POT BOILING, therefore it only remains to distribute the different employments of our little household!

  1858.  G. ELIOT, Amos Barton, vi. “The poor fellow must have a hard pull to get along, with his small income and large family. Let us hope the Countess does something towards MAKING THE POT BOIL.”

  1869.  Fun, 29 May, ‘A Double Event.’ The Treasurer and the Box Book-keeper take their benefits … heavily backed by the two companies, and we trust the public will PUT ON A POT for them.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, i. There were other chances and pickings which helped to MAKE THE POT BOIL.

  1893.  P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xxii. He gets to know their account, and he PUTS THE POT ON ’em settling day. Ibid., viii. I found at last I must go on pitch by myself, to KEEP THE POT BOILING, as many a true artiste has too.

  1898.  Cigarette, 26 Nov., 13, 3. Now then, KEEP THE POT A-BILING, Mister Graydon down below!