Definition of "potch"

I'll potch at him some way, / Or wrath or craft may get him.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene x]

Afterwards, the second pasture should be treated in the same manner, and the rest in course, feeding the wettest pasture after the driest, that the soil may be less potched.

1837, John Orville Taylor, The Farmer′s School Book, page 116

The said William Aitken, being of new solemnly sworn, &c., depones he is a Burgess of Hawick, and had the property of a house which he now liferents, the fee being disponed to his son-in-law, Bailie Robert Scot, for the use of his son William, his daughter, Bailie Scot's wife, having paid the price of the house; depones sixty years ago Gilbert Elliot was tenant in Nether Southfield, who broke Hawick Common by plowing a part of it, which the Deponent saw at the Common-Riding when the Magistrates and other persons at the Common-Riding potched the ground he had plowed, and was then sown that he might not reap the crop of this.

1898, R. S. Craig, ‎Adam Laing, The Hawick Tradition of 1514: The Town's Common Flag and Seal, page 240

Discusses the difference between potch opal and common opal. The terms are often used synonymously, but this writer shows that potch is found only in association with precious opal and differs from common opal in its structure quite substantially.

1982, Gemmological Association of Great Britain, The Journal of Gemmology, Volume 18, page 432

She set them down with precision, she set them down with the same kind of care that Bernie took when he and his underlings cut opal, or when they polished the rough stones, or when they bonded opal veneer on to potch.

1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 75

Likewise, a thin piece of good opal on potch (opal with no play of colour) may be cut so that the potch acts as a backing.

2006, Michael O'Donoghue, Gems: Their Sources, Descriptions and Identification, 6th Edition, Elsevier, UK, page 321

a Potched Egge

1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took, […]

The Yolks of Eggs are of themſelves ſo well prepared by Nature for nourishment, as (ſo they be Potched, or Rear boyled) they need no other preparation or mixture; yet they may be taken alſo raw, when they are new laid, with Malmſey or Sweet Wine.

1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries, published 1670, page 14

Eggs potched and eaten with the juice of Sorrel, are verie good. Likewiſe Barlie-water ſeaſoned with the grains of a tart Pomgranat, and if the Fever bee vehement, with the ſeeds of white Poppie.

1849, Ambroise Paré, Thomas Johnson (translator), Adriaan van den Spiegel (additional tractates), Concerning the Plague, The Workes of that Famous Chirurgion Ambroſe Parey, page 553

And if a man should break his fast with a light and nourishing meate, then I say there is nothing better than a couple of egges potched, or the yolkes of two egges sodden rere and put in one shell, seasoned with a little pepper, butter and salt, supped off warme, drinking after it a good draught of claret wine.

1860, “The Medical Times and Gazette”, in Notes and Queries, volume 1, page 167