Definition of "pot"

pot¹

/pɒt/

noun
plural pots
1. A flat-bottomed vessel (usually metal) used for cooking food.
2. Various similar open-topped vessels, particularly
  1. A vessel (usually earthenware) used with a seal for storing food, such as a honeypot.
  2. A vessel used for brewing or serving drinks: a coffeepot or teapot.
  3. A vessel used to hold soil for growing plants, particularly flowers: a flowerpot.
    Quotations
    He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
    1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
  4. (archaic except in fixed expressions) A vessel used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot; (figuratively, slang) a toilet; the lavatory.
    Quotations
    “Clinton,” Gail cried from outside, “are you going to sit on the pot all day?”
    2011, Ben Zeller, Secrets of Beaver Creek, page 204
  5. A crucible: a melting pot.
  6. A pot-shaped trap used for catching lobsters or other seafood: a lobster pot.
  7. A pot-shaped metal or earthenware extension of a flue above the top of a chimney: a chimney pot.
  8. A perforated cask for draining sugar.
  9. (obsolete) An earthen or pewter cup or mug used for drinking liquor.
    Quotations
    "So kindly keep the vainglorious enumeration of your pots for the benefit of those village idiots who compose your particular set of boozing companions."
    1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, page 85
  10. (Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania) A glass of beer in Australia whose size varies regionally but is typically around 10 fl oz (285 mL).
    Quotations
    There are plenty of pubs and bars all over Australia (serving beer in schooners – 425ml or middies/pots ~285ml), and if you don′t fancy those you can drink in wine bars, pleasant beer gardens, or with friends at home.
    2009, Deborah Penrith et al., Live & Work in Australia, page 187
3. (archaic except in place names) Pothole, sinkhole, vertical cave.
4. A shallow hole used in certain games played with marbles. The marbles placed in it are called potsies.
5. (slang, uncountable) Ruin or deterioration.
6. (historical) Any of various traditional units of volume notionally based on the capacity of a pot.
7. (historical) An iron hat with a broad brim worn as a helmet.
  Quotations
  The pot is an iron hat with broad brims: there are many under the denomination in the Tower, said to have been taken from the French...
  1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 12
8. (rail transport) A pot-shaped non-conducting (usually ceramic) stand that supports an electrified rail while insulating it from the ground.
9. (gambling, poker) The money available to be won in a hand of poker or a round of other games of chance; (figuratively) any sum of money being used as an enticement.
10. (UK, horse-racing, slang) A favorite: a heavily-backed horse.
11. (slang) Clipping of potbelly: a pot-shaped belly, a paunch.
  Quotations
  Fabienne: I wish I had a pot.Butch: You were lookin' in the mirror and you wish you had some pot?Fabienne: A pot. A pot belly. Pot bellies are sexy.Butch: Well you should be happy, 'cause you do.Fabienne: Shut up, Fatso! I don't have a pot! I have a bit of a tummy, like Madonna when she did "Lucky Star". It's not the same thing.
  1994, Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
12. (slang) Clipping of potshot: a haphazard shot; an easy or cheap shot.
  Quotations
  England were shipping penalties at an alarming rate - five in the first 15 minutes alone - and with Wilkinson missing three long-distance pots of his own in the first 20 minutes, the alarm bells began to ring for Martin Johnson's men.
  2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport
13. (chiefly East Midlands, Yorkshire) A plaster cast.
14. (historical) Alternative form of pott: a former size of paper, 12.5 × 15 inches.
verb
third-person singular simple present pots, present participle potting, simple past and past participle potted
1. To put (something) into a pot.
2. To preserve by bottling or canning.
3. (snooker, pool, billiards) To cause a ball to fall into a pocket.
4. (snooker, pool, billiards) To be capable of being potted.
5. (transitive) To shoot with a firearm.
  Quotations
  When hunted, it [the jaguar] takes refuge in trees, and this habit is well known to hunters, who pursue it with dogs and pot it when treed.
  1897, Encyclopaedia of Sport
6. (intransitive, dated) To take a pot shot, or haphazard shot, with a firearm.
7. (transitive, colloquial) To secure; gain; win; bag.
8. (Britain) To send someone to gaol, expeditiously.
9. (obsolete, dialect, UK) To tipple; to drink.
  Quotations
  It is less labour to plough than to pot it.
  1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political
10. (transitive) To drain (e.g. sugar of the molasses) in a perforated cask.
  Quotations
  Too much temper likewise prevents the melasses from separating from the sugar when it is potted or put into the hogshead
  1793, Bryan Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies
11. (transitive, Britain) To seat a person, usually a young child, on a potty or toilet, typically during toilet teaching.
  Quotations
  Ideally the best Ideally the best way of tackling the problem of toilet training, is to 'pot' your child at set intervals when he is at home, even though he may no longer be a baby, thus establishing a regular routine instead of one at odd intervals.
  1975, Nancie R. Finnie, Handling the Young Cerebral Palsied Child, page 75
  If you leave out this “catching" stage altogether and start proper toilet training at, say, eighteen months you will only have to pot your baby about 2000 times for the same effect.
  1978, Penelope Leach, Your Baby & Child from Birth to Age Five, page 225
  Do not make the mistake of potting your baby as early as possible, but wait until she gives the signal that she is aware that puddles are somehow to do with her.
  2004, Joan Gomez, Coping with Incontinence, page 33
  Of course, if at any stage your child takes a violent dislike to the pot, then I would put it away for a few weeks and then try again, but if the pot is very comfortable, your attitude is calm and you don't over-pot your child (put him on the pot too often or talk about the pot too much), this shouldn't happen.
  2012, Nanny Smith, Nina Grunfeld, Nanny Knows Best: Successful Potty Training
12. (chiefly East Midlands) To apply a plaster cast to a broken limb.
13. To catch (a fish, eel, etc) via a pot.
  Quotations
  Most Fishneck watermen oystered in winter, using the same small skiffs from which they potted crabs in summer.
  1986, Carolyn Ellis, Fisher Folk: Two Communities on Chesapeake Bay, University Press of Kentucky, page 77
  Potting Eels: Except for the mature neshaws, Vineyard eels were potted (caught by pots) in September and October. […] When eeling was good, each pot would catch 25 to 100 pounds of neshaws; some pots would be filled to capacity.
  1994, The Dukes County Intelligencer, volumes 36-37, page 131
14. (rugby, transitive) To score (a drop goal).
  Quotations
  With five minutes to go, Trevathan potted his second goal, and finally it was the fullback Taylor who scored.
  1967, Arthur H. Carman, Ranfurly Shield Rugby, page 139
  He played for the Oxford Australians against their Cambridge counterparts, and even potted a few goals at picnic Rugby matches.
  1998, Geoffrey Serle: In Tribute, page 20

pot²

/pɒt/

noun
uncountable
1. (slang, uncountable) Marijuana.
  Quotations
  The way we figure it, ma'am, if everybody walked around naked, smoked pot and listened to rock'n'roll, there wouldn't be any more wars!
  1968 July, Shel Silverstein, “Silverstein's Hippies”, in Playboy Magazine, page 189

pot³

/pɒt/

noun
plural pots
1. (slang, electronics) A simple electromechanical device used to control resistance or voltage (often to adjust sound volume) in an electronic device by rotating or sliding when manipulated by a human thumb, screwdriver, etc.
verb
third-person singular simple present pots, present participle potting, simple past and past participle potted
1. (slang, broadcasting) To fade volume in or out by means of a potentiometer.
  Quotations
  While the announcer is talking, the select switch on the mixing board for the microphone input is selected, and the microphone is “potted up.”
  1999, A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-engineers, page 23

pot⁴

/pɒt/

noun
plural pots
1. (roleplaying games, video games) Clipping of potion.

Definition of "pot"

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pot2

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pot3

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pot4

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pot¹

pot²

pot³

pot⁴