pot n.1
1. based on the idea of the vagina as a ‘container’.
(a) (orig. UK Und.) a woman.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 32: Their harlots [...] O! how the pottes walke about! their talkinge tounges talke at large. | |
| Vulgar Tongue 26: pot n. A woman. ‘This old pot, we will turn her.’ We will pick this woman’s pocket. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 335: pot—a girl. | |
| I Can Get It For You Wholesale 16: One of the pots that sat at the table on the platform was writing away with a pencil. | |
| Tough Guy [ebook] ‘They start drinking heavy or they start jabbing a needle or crying on the shoulder of some pott’ [sic] [ibid.] She was sound asleep. A nice pott, thought Georgie. They were all potts to Georgie. Calling them potts gave him a good feeling. |
(b) (later use US black) the vagina.
| Covent-Garden Weeded I i: Hells broke loose; this comes of your new fingle-fangle fashion, your preposterous Italian way forsooth: would that I could have kept my old ways of pots and pipes, and my Stong-water course for customers. | |
| Elder Brother V ii: Never attempt to search my Lilly-pot. | |
| ‘Mr. Etheredge’s Answer’ in Thorpe Etheredge: Poems (1963) 38: Unless poor Pego, which did feel / Like slimey skin of new stript Eele, / Or Pudding, that mischance had got; / And lost it self half in the Pot. | |
| Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 264: She has a Dimple, / And such a one, as who would not / Put all his Flesh into the Pot? | |
| Canidia iv 49: She there lies Leager, / Till she can find another, eager / Upon the Business, some hot Shot / That has a mind to go to th’ Pot. | |
| ‘Lass of Lynn’s New Joy’ Pepys Ballads (1987) III 300: Byth’ Meat in your Pot, I find, you Whore, you’ve had a Cook in your Kitchin. | |
| Dutchess of C[leveland]’s Memorial in Williams Dict. Sexual Lang. II 1079: He reeking went from my wide Pot Whilst I was a Punk of Honour. | |
| ‘The Tea-Pot’ Pleasures of Coition ii: By Name of Tea-Pot all Men know me. | |
| Nocturnal Meeting 130: Now you’ve got your pot full of juice you’d better keep it there to prevent your quim getting too dry. | |
| (con. 1927) in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 618: Nothing but peckers will cool off her pot. | |
| ‘Answer to the Letter’ in et al. Life (1976) 144: Every night when I got off your pot, / I went to the doctor for a rabies shot. |
2. in the context of drinking.
(a) (also potter) a generic term for alcohol, a drink.
| Like Will to Like 51: I would I had a pot, for now I am so hot. | |
| ‘Old Simon the Kinge’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 4: They [...] who loves a pott & a lasse / must not cry ‘oh my head oh!’. | |
| Three Lords and Three Ladies of London D3: Hark ye, you woman, if you’ll go to the alehouse, Ile bestow two pots on ye, and we’ll get a paire of Cardes and some company, and winne twenty pots more. | |
| Mother Bombie II i: It is good to plea among pots. | |
| ‘Amorous Dialogue btwn John & his Mistress’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 65: Your master you know is a Fool and a Sot, / And minds nothing else but the Pipe and the Pot. / Till twelve or till one he will never come home, / And then he’s so drunk that he lies like a Mome. | |
| Hell Upon Earth Prologue: I cannot look upon your Affection for Religion to be any more zealous than a Pot-Poet’s sitting in a Bawdy-House. | |
| Joseph Andrews (1954) I 59: After they had drank a loving pot [...] they set out together. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Midas I v: Pot, And good ale have got. | |
| ‘The Vicar and Moses’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 2: At the sign of the horse, Old Spintext of course, / Each night took his pipe and his pot. | |
| ‘The Frolicsome Spark’ No. 31 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Damn the dog that refuses a pot. | |
| Real Life in Ireland 32: A right good fellow as ever took the froth of a pot. | |
| Yorkville Enquirer (SC) 22 Apr. 4/2: [H]e will abandon his purpose of reformation [and] go back to his accursed ‘pots’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 10/3: There was a time when it was the proud boast of Bourke that it could turn out more first-class lunatics to the square yard than any other town its size [...] Beyond all doubt, Bourke owes its success in this line to the ‘pot’. | |
| Dottings of a Dosser 91: My assailant [...] averring that I was a ‘jolly old cock,’ and offering to ‘stand a pot’. | |
| Hole in the Wall (1947) 194: ‘Ay, ay, sir!’ the man would answer, and humbly return to his pot. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Nov. 47/2: Fact is, McMeekin, the next sex doesn’t get a fair deal from the habitual potter. When the wine’s in the woman’s outed. In the bar-room conversazione Sissie is either a bad joke or an object of smouldering resentment. | |
| Let Tomorrow Come 104: He’s been in that pot-locker for three weeks. | |
| ‘The Boomer Shack’ Hobo’s Hornbook 63: Eastbound Jack was a boomer shack, / And he loved the jungle pot, [...] Jack had a thirst, in a land accursed – / Ye gods, but Jack was dry! |
(b) a glass of beer, irrespective of measure; thus pay the pots, pay for the beer.
| [ | | Thersytes (1550) D ii: Clytteringe and clatteringe there youre pottes with ale]. |
| Recruiting Officer I i: Come, honest lad, will you take share of a pot? | |
| ‘The Travelling Tinker’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 226: This thrifty Labour makes me Sweat, / Here, gi’s a cooling Pot ho. | |
| Artifice Act IV: Where may a Body zee yow some Day to drink a Pot to all our Friends in Gloucestershire? | |
| Cumberland Pacquet 12 Dec. 4/4: I sing the pitmen’s plagues and cares / Their pay-night o’er a foaming pot / All clean wash’d up, their way pursue / To drink and crack. | |
| Morn. Post (London) 1 Nov. 2/2: The captain conceded ‘pots round’ [...] the party arose and repaired to the appointed spot. | |
| Derby Mercury 9 Jan. 8/3: Well we goes into a pub, and [...] we have a few pots (of beer). | |
| Sketch (London) 22 Feb. 18: ‘I paid the pots (beer) all roun’’. | |
| ‘War’ Moods of Ginger Mick 24: But, lad, I ’ave to, wiv the thirst I got / I’m goin’ over now to stop a pot. | |
| Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 May 7/3: It was Old Bill’s ‘shout,’ and he said, as he raised his ‘pot,’ ‘Here’s to the good old days we had in Palestine.’ […] Old Bill placed his empty glass ‘pot’ and the price of two more drinks on the counter, and smiled. | |
| Boy in Bush 149: ‘Have a pot, youngster?’ ‘Thanks.’. | |
| Murder Down Under (1951) 46: Mr Wallace then was drawing pots for a party of men at the far end of the bar. | |
| ‘Short Shift Saturday’ in Mann Coast to Coast 227: There was a big, noisy mob in the bar. There were a lot of chaps [...] arguing or singing or just emptying pots. | |
| Gold in the Streets (1966) 105: Bumped into Charlie, we had a couple of pots. | |
 | ‘Variation 1’ The Quest 34: Ah’d owney ’ad a few spots / But other ou was full o’ pots. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 79: Accompanied by a few pots of your preferred freezing cold amber fluid. | |
| Big Ask 75: Some blokes’d drink ten, twelve pots a day. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] All Les knew about drinking in South Australia was [...] instead of pots and middies, they drank butcher’s. |
(c) sixpence [the contemporary price of a quart pot of half-and-half, a mixture of ale and porter].
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 193: pot a sixpence, i.e., the price of a pot or quart of half-and-half. A half crown, in medical student slang, is a five-pot piece. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: For our next coin in value [i.e. sixpence] twenty names are found [...] ‘Fyebuck,’ ‘half-hog,’ ‘kick,’ ‘lord of the manor,’ ‘pig,’ ‘pot,’ ‘say saltee,' ’sprat,’ ‘snid,’ ‘simon,’ ‘sow's baby,’ ’tanner,’ tester,’ and ‘tizzy’. | |
| Household Words 20 June 155: To many drinkers the coin... was known as a pot, because it was the price of a pot, or quart of ‘half-and-half’ [F&H]. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Eve. Teleg. 19 July 2/4: Sixpence is a popular coin in slangdom [...] ‘half-a-hog,’ ‘kick,’ (thus two and a ‘kick’ 2s 6d)‘lord of the manor,’ ‘pig,’ ‘pot,’ ‘snid,’ ‘sow’s baby’. |
(d) (Aus.) a glass resembling a tankard and containing 12 fl. oz of beer.
| Dly News (Perth, WA) 23 July 8/8: In one place there are only two hotels, and when a man goes in and asks and pays for a pint of beer he cannot get one, but has to pay 4d. for, and he is only supplied with, a glass pot with a handle on as a pint, which [it] is not. In every other part of Australia every publican must supply his customers with a properly stamped measure, either pint or half-pint. | |
| Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 22 jan. 7/3: The Hon. R. D. McKenzie, in his capacity as brewery director, should immediately insist (in the interests of the brewer and the consumer), that the State Hotel firstly, and afterwards all others, shall sell a pint of wallop when a pint is ordered. The present glass pots have so much bottom that no room is left for the accumulation of froth. | |
| Truth (Perth, WA) 19 Jan. 1/2: The fourpenny pint of beer has become a sixpenny pot of beer, and that same ‘pot’ is covering a multitude of sins. The United Licensed Victuallers Association of W.A. arranges the price of liquor and, for some time now have ruled that a ‘pot’ is equivalent to 12 fluid ounces of beer. |
(e) (Aus.) in (Qld, Vic, Tas, WA, a handleless glass used to serve a medium size beer; such a serving.
| Age (Melbourne) 7 Dec. 12/3: The publicans will hold a meeting to consider the raising of the price of the 3d. pot of beer to 4d., and spirits and soda to 9d. | |
| Northern Territory Times & Gaz. 19 Apr. 4/2: ‘I know you all could do a pot - and, blime! so could I!’. | |
| Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 15 Dec. 4/4: Recently The Goldfields Licensed Victuallers’ Association decided to reduce the size of ‘pot’ glasses and charged 7d. for the liquid contents thereof . | |
| Gippsland Times (Vic) 1 Oct. 5/3: I cud play orfside ter wowsers, / Mend yer socks, yer shirts an’ trousers / I cud take on shiftin’ ’ouses, / Or pullin’ pots in pubs. | |
| Townsville Dly Bulletin 25 June 14/3: ‘Me tongue is as dry as a board. A couple of pots would be handy.’. | |
| Camperdown Chronicle (Vic.) 3 Dec. 5/5: tate your capacity per hour in ‘pots’ and/or ‘Noggins’, and/or ‘Snifters’. | |
| in Narromine News (NSW) 8 July 5/4: [He] asked the barmaid for a pot without a collar. | |
| It’s Harder for Girls 167: A pair of twelve-ounce pots tasted all right after the hard half-shift, but insufficient. | |
| Riverslake 206: ‘A pot?’ Charlesworth echoed. ‘One pot? I’ll buy you the whole flamin’ hotel’. | |
| Sydney Morn. Herald 8 Nov. 2/4: From alongside, a voice broke in: ‘In Adelaide we call that a schooner,’ and a small, red-faced man made up the trio. To him I expressed sympathy at such extreme myopia. ‘A schooner, my friends, is a large glass,’ I told him, and sized it up approximately in mid-air. ‘That’s a pot,’ said the Melbourne man. ‘A pot without the handle. They don’t put the handles on any more’. | |
| Nice Night’s Entertainment (1981) 42: ‘A lot of the fellas from school were there and by eleven o’clock we’d knocked back a fair few pots’. | |
| It’s Your Shout, Mate! 39: I had already learnt Melbourne glass sizes and nomenclature, so different from Adelaide. One asks for a four ounce, a small beer, or a pot. A request for a small beer produces seven ounces, and for a pot ten. | |
| Australian Pub Crawl 126: A middy in Western Australia is 7 oz, but 10 oz in New South Wales. However in Victoria and Queensland the 10 oz glass is called a pot. The pot in Western Australia can be 10 or 15 oz. | |
| Pokerface 38: Crawley winked at him and handed him the pot. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] . | |
| Aussie Home Brewer 25 Aug. 🌐 Reminds me of a mate of mine, only been in Melbourne a few weeks and we went to Sydney and he asked for a pot of VB the barman told him he only had schooners so he said well just give me a pot of schooners. |
(f) (Aus.) in Queensland, a 10oz (285ml) beer glass.
| Dinkum Aussie Dict. 33: In New South Wales a schooner is somewhat short of a pint which is known as a pot in Victoria but in the aforementioned State a pint is a pint but never has been sold as such because there were no glasses to hold that measure. |
3. based on the idea of a ‘pot’ belly.
(a) an enlarged stomach, usu. developed through excessive drinking; also occas. used of the stomach in general.
| implied in pot-gutted | |
| in London Mag. Dec. 631/1: Keede patted his round little pot. | |
| Serenade (1985) 309: A middle-aged wop, with pot on him so big it hid his feet. | |
| (con. 1912) George Brown’s Schooldays 23: You always came out of the hall with your pot feeling emptier than when you went in. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 29: He came out to meet me, wearing a hard-hitter and a fancy waistcoat. He was about thirty-five and getting a pot already. | |
| (con. 1945) Tattoo (1977) 311: He wore his dungarees low under a little pot, bagging over his fleshless butt. | |
| Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 78: I wish I had a pot. |
(b) a plump person.
| Men from the Boys (1967) 96: And the way he stuck to his plump Marge, a real pot. |
4. in monetary senses.
(a) a large sum of money, often as placed on a bet; also in pl.
| implied in put the pot on | |
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 2 Apr. 3/4: Lady Chesterfield stood a ‘pot’ upon her lord’s pet, and everybody was glad to see her win. | |
| Alton Locke 26: Fine him a pot! [...] for talking about kicking the bucket. | |
| N.Y. Clipper 27 Aug. 1/7: As usual there were several ‘pots’, viz., Catspaw, Snowdon, Dunhill [...] the first named [...] having the lions share of support. | |
| Davenport Dunn 216: Wasn’t I in for a pot on Blue Nose, when Mope ran a dead heat with Balshazzar. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Hills & Plains 2 62: ‘Go to the Mahajuns, borrow a “pot” from them, and pay off the Bank’. | |
| Our Mutual Friend (1994) 155: Regarding the money. It is a pot of money. | |
| Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 5 May 4/4: [S]ome hitherto unknown bottled-up animal ‘lands the pot’. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 275: He had made ‘pots’ of money at it [i.e. swindling]. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Mar. 2/1: Oh, how badly the gang is going to get left when they sail [...] this summer to rake in the pot at the English races. | |
| Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage 42: It was a scene where he might ‘win a pot’ / Or ‘lose a pile’. | |
| letter 5 Feb. in Pope Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 24: My New York publishers [...] have failed, owing me a pot of money. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 11 Nov. 6/3: You know I nearly caught it hot, / It cost me pots, you know. | |
| Gem 16 Mar. 4: My father’s got pots of money. | |
| ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 252: Here’s a little pot the boys kittied out for you. | |
| Well of Loneliness (1976) 247: The Grigg’s just come into pots and pots of money, so I hope they’ll be deliriously happy and silly while it lasts. | |
| Capricornia (1939) 274: On the construction you could make a pot of hoot in no time. | |
| Grapes of Wrath (1951) 173: You folks must have a nice little pot of money. | |
| Uncle Fred in the Springtime 71: ‘You stay open all night and sell onion soup to the multitude as they reel out of the bottle-party places. Pots of money in it’. | |
| (con. 1920s) Schnozzola 81: I’m going to cut this pot up just the way you want it. | |
| Beds in the East (1972) 457: ‘Oooooh, Victor, in Penang [...] there was one very distinguished-looking man, you know, with greying hair and pots and pots of money, and he wanted to marry me.’. | |
| Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 176: I haven’t a pot. | |
| Indep. Rev. 26 July 8: You ought to collect a pot of money. | |
| N.Y. Rev. of Books 18 Nov. 33: That elusive ‘break’ that would bring in pots of money. | |
| Observer Screen 20 Feb. 7: I thought he must have a pot of money. | |
| Whiplash River [ebook] ‘Your plan is we chop the pot three ways’. |
(b) the favourite in a horserace, upon whom ‘pots of money’ have been wagered.
| Sporting Gaz. (London) 1 Apr. 5/1: Pot — The sum of money for which a favourite is backed, and sometimes the favourite himself. | |
| Sl. Dict. 258: Pot, a favourite in the betting for a race. Probably so called because it is usual to say that a heavily-backed horse carries ‘a pot of money’. When a favourite is beaten the pot is said to be upset. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 7 May. 5/1: Wheatear is the great ‘pot’ for the Melbourne Cup. | |
| Graphic 17 Nov. 494/2: Medicus, the great Cambridgeshire pot, and Thebais, who showed well in that race, were among the runners [F&H]. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 26 May 24/1: But a 15 to 1 chance romped in an easy winner giving nothing else a show; the hot pot could’nt [sic] get nearer than fourth. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Dec. 45/7: ‘Bli’ me!’ he ejaculated, ‘screw the old pot with the crook minces!’. |
5. a prison.
| ‘John Long and His — I Know What’ in Funny Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 37: His Worship made John Long repent, / And sent him off to pot; / At Brixton Mill three months he spent. |
6. of a person [abbr. big pot n.].
(a) an important person [later use is SE].
| ‘’Arry on His Critics’ Punch 17 Dec. 280/1: Me vulgar! a Primroser, Charlie, a true ‘Anti-Radical’ pot! | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 18 Oct. 5/3: And they said I was a ‘pot,’ / So was Jersey. / For we knocked ’em all a lot, / Me and Jersey. | |
| No. 5 John Street 150: The father’s some tremendous pot in the financial way, and got his baronetcy for a Royal visit. | |
| [perf. Wilkie Bard] ‘All Becos ’e’s Minding a ’ouse’ 🎵 'E comes out on the balcony, as though ’e was the pot / And don't 'e get the needle when yer shout. | |
| ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 577: great pot, n. A person of much importance. ‘He’s in favor of it, and he’s a great pot, too.’. | |
| Digger Dialects 39: pot (n.) — Person. | |
| Bulldog Drummond 243: Isn’t he some pot in one of your big trade unions? | |
| (con. WWI) Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: pot (a) An important person. |
(b) a person, irrespective of status.
| [perf. George Bastow] ‘Captain Ginjah O.T.’ 🎵 They all know Captain Ginjah / Jolly old pot, O.T. ’ot / Ninety-five in the shade what, what. | |
| Aussie (France) 8 Oct. 14/1: Why, if a pot worked his nut properly he could beat the Jacks at their own game, and take time off from the front line whenever he felt that another birthday had come round. | |
| Redheap (1965) 196: ‘Grandpa?’ ‘Yes, you know the old pot really does go on the spree and cart women about’ . |
(c) (US) an obnoxious person.
| What’s In It For Me? 115: Pots like Martha Mills, Teddy, they can always wait. |
7. a lit. or fig. prize.
(a) a prize, esp. a cup given to a sporting victor.
| Mirror of Life 28 Apr. 3/1: [T]he club made sure of three of the four cracks bringing home the ‘pots’. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 110: Your boat wins [...] your photograph is taken with the crew, a pot is given you which proudly ornaments your room. | |
| Sudden Takes the Trail 66: ‘So, Mister Sudden, our game is finished, an’ I take the pot,’ he hissed. | |
| Observer Rev. 3 Oct. 5: I take my first pot while Mexico Dave rakes in the cards. |
(b) (UK Und.) the rewards of a crime or a bet.
| ‘Villon’s Straight Tip’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 176: Suppose you screeve, or go cheap-jack? [...] Suppose you duff? or nose and lag? / Or get the straight, and land your pot? | |
| Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 22 May 7/2: Each time he raked home a pot he patted the old shoe and crowed a little [DA]. | |
| Carlito’s Way 108: ‘Two hundred thou. That means the pot is two mill. That means two hundred keys’. |
8. see pot hat
In derivatives
see separate entry.
In compounds
a drinking aquaintance, a friend to go drinking with, thus pot-companionship.
| Essayes of Prison n.p.: Let not thy companion be a miserable base minded fellow [...] he will draw thee to riot, of adultery to lust, of swearers to damned oaths, of pot companions to drunkenesse. | |
| Divers Crabtree Lectures n.p.: Ursula Upseefreeze is condemned for her uncivill carriage; as proov’d to be no better than a pot companion. | |
| Love’s Mistress I i: A pot companion, brother to the glass, That roars in his cups, indeed a drunken Ass. | |
| Vinegar and Mustard A2v: How you whispered with your Jacks and Pot-companions, and then you shook hands at parting. | |
| Gulliver Decypher’d 2: The Grand Treasurer made him his pot-companion. | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 65: My Uncle, his two Pot-Companions, and meself, took a Walk. | |
| Satirist (London) 16 Oct. 222/1: [H]e sips tea and drinks gin-and-water with his pot-companion Headland. | |
| Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures 9: A parcel of pot-companions. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Oct. 3/4: Here I am! a proclaimed example of what mischievous effects arise from [...] conspiring, monopolizing fraternities [...] and pot-companionship leagues! | |
| Paul Pry 5 Mar. 5/2: We also advise W. T. B—r, pot companion to the above, not to fancy the ballet girl at the Eagle is in love with him. | |
| Peeping Tom (London) 29 115/1: I saw your husband [...] three or four of his pot companions with him. |
drunk.
| Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 110: Before the last quart was assimilated, Estelle got pot-eyed. |
a fat person, a person with a pot belly, also attrib.
| N. Carolina Standard (Raleigh, NC) 1 Apr. 2/3: The company [...] of pot-gut speculators and purse-proud lawyers. | |
| Pictorial Pick (NY) 4 July n.p.: A fat man is a pot-gut. | |
| Norfolk News 2 July 9/5: As I passed [...] I heard Goddard call out ‘pot-gut,’ and laugh violently. | |
| Bolivar Bulletin (TN) 4 Mar. 3/2: Of course old ‘pot-gut’ is ‘trooly loil’. | |
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 359: pot-gut, n. A pot-bellied person. | |
| Wenatchee Dly World (WA) 17 June 4/1: Those philanthropists [...] should be held in higher reverence than those of pot-gut politicians. |
pot-bellied.
| Welsh Opera II ii: Making your Master brew more Beer than he needed, and then giving it away to your own Family—especially to feed that great swollen Belly of that pot-gutted Brother of yours. | |
| Spiritual Quixote I Bk iv 232: You pot-gutted rascal! | |
| Isle of Wight Obs. 29 Oct. 3/5: Giz up, you holler-legged, pot-gutted, turkey buzzard. | |
| Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 161: Well, the pot-gutted, ball-headed Baptis’ bull nigger [...] sot his specks an’ tuk a tex. | |
| McCook Wkly Tribune 6 Dec. 10/1: This is the person who [...] grows pot-gutted with pride. | |
| Shepton Mallet Jrnl 19 Dec. 3/1: On his replying, called him ‘A pot-gutted — ’. | |
| Cambridge Dly News 26 Aug. 4/1: ‘What have you been trying to do by calling me an old pot-gutted — ?’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 36/1: This cuddy of mine was a pot-gutted bay. Called him Nugget. He was a great horse – in size. | |
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 359: pot-gutted, adj. Pot-bellied. | |
| ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 586: pot-gutted, adj. Pot-bellied. ‘Look at that pot-gutted beer fly, will you.’. | |
| Drifting Cowboy (1931) 117: I drawed a pot gutted runt by the name of Big Enuff. | |
| Living Rough 97: ‘The lousy pot-gutted bastard,’ I thought, ‘insulting a poor stiff.’. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 56: Pot-gutted, fat, paunchy. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | A Good Keen Man 161: Another interview with the flash pot-gutted bloke. |
(Aus.) a barman; thus pot-jostle v., to serve drinks.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 19 June 9/3: Carr-Boyd is known in Queensland as the ‘Pot-jostler’. | |
| W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Apr. 1/1: The opulent pot-jostler hiccoughed a senile assent to the grovelling gush. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Nov. 48/1: When I caste aside the implements of trade and appurtenances of office, and walk abroad, nobody is content to take me for an ambidextrous pot-jostler or toss-pot merely. A barrister, if you like, but never a barman. | |
| Sheepmates 163: It does me good to see the likes o’ them that’s lorded it [...] down to pot-jostlin’ for the toiler. |
(Aus.) lit. ‘drink-serving’, thus used of a publican, and by ext. the brewing interest.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 5/4: You say you are deputed by a number of our subscribers to request that we will ‘slate’ a Mr. Russell. What do you take us for? Because you and some of your pot-jostling comrades have a pique against him, do you think you can utilize our journal to vent your personal spleen? | |
| Truth (Sydney) 1July 4/4: The petulant and pusillanimous propagator of pot-jostling patriotism. |
1. (Aus./US) a restaurant washer-up.
| Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 28 Sept. 1/1: Pots, pans, skillets [...] and all the other paraphanalia of the pot jugglers’ department. | |
| Laverton and Beria Mercury (WA) 3 May 3/1: [The] motor hat [...] now adorns the bead of the pot juggler in a Lancefield hash foundry. | |
| Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 6 June 9/2: Tyler will hypothecate his red shirt, and become pot-juggler-in-chief at the Shamrock. | |
| S.F. Examiner 11 Dec. 15/1: [headline] Tennis Sharp Wins Fame as Pot Juggler. | |
| ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 26 Oct. 10/7: ‘Money’ Clayton claims he has a ‘pot-rassler’ on Primrose Avenue. |
2. (Aus.) as pint-pot juggler a barman.
| Truth (Sydney) 3 Dec. 12/5: Harold Edwards is a little bloke with whips of darn cheek, and he follows the occupation of a beer-jerker or pint-pot juggler— i.e., a barman. |
3. (also pisspot juggler) one who distributes and empties chamberpots, e.g. a cabin steward, a nurse, a hospital orderly.
| Sport (Adelaide) 12 Feb. 5/3: Lizzie D kids herself since she’s been pot juggler at the hospital. | |
| (con. WWI) Tom Roberts 21: He had volunteered to do his bit, and his bit had been decided [...] to be that of a pot juggler at Wandsworth Hospital. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Vancouver Sun (BC) 6 Apr. 6/4: The vast majority of prostitutes [...] would not change jobs with a waitress or chamber-pot juggler on a bet. | |
| ‘Alibi’ in News-Pilot (San Pedro, CA) 26 Dec. 10/2: ‘Try it [i.e. a cup of tea] yerself, ye bleedin’ pot juggler’ [...] the Mate dashed it into the cabin boy’s face. | |
| Storm Below (2010) [ebook] The mere thought of serving as a pot juggler in a hospital had now lost its allure. | |
| (con. WWI) A Thousand Shall Fall 115: The ‘mayor’s daughter’ was nurse working at a nearby hospital [...] ‘Stuck with the old pot-juggler again tongiht, are you Freddie?’. | |
| On the Coast 79: Piss-pot juggler: Old fashioned term for a cabin steward. | |
| Alternative Index (Westmoreland, KS) 8 Aug. 2/2: If they [i.e. nurses] worked in a normal hospital on the streets all they would really be is ‘piss pot jugglers’ . |
a drunkard.
| Womens sharpe revenge 173: There is no learned Pot-leech or Renowned Malt-worme that is worthy to hold the candle to an English Drunkard. |
(Aus.) a barmaid.
| ‘On a Bender’ Benno and Some of the Push 80: That ginger pot-polisher ’s bin through all the blood-’ouses in town. |
drunk.
| ‘Wit and Mirth’ in Works (1869) II 182: One mad tosspot fellow [...] hauing made himselfe halfe pot-shaken. | |
| Womens sharpe revenge 175: The first Health is call’d a Whiffe, the second a Slash, the third a Hunch, the fourth Thrust, the fift is call’d Pot-shaken, the sixth is seeing the Lions, the seventh he is scratch’d, the eighth, his Nose is dirty, the ninth he hath whipt the Catt, the tenth, he is fox’d, the eleventh, he is Bewitch’d, the twelfth, he is Blinde, and the thirteenth, and last, he is drunke. | |
| Vinegar and Mustard A3v: Thou art such an innocent fool, that though thou seest thy guests pot-shaken, and have lost their memories, you forsooth must tell them their just reckoning. |
drunk.
| ‘An Armado’ in Works (1869) I 83: When any of them are wounded, pot-shot, jug-bitten or cup-shaken. | |
| ‘Praise of cleane Linnen’ in Works (1869) II 168: And being mad perhaps, and hot pot-shot, / A crazed Crowne or broken-pate hath got. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 31 27 Dec.–3 Jan. 243: Now ye pimping Harlot-houses, have I not told you what your Pride would bring you too? That within a year or two you’l bee / Like Pott-shot K---s, and twice as poor as wee. |
drunk.
| Queen Anna’s World of Words n.p.: Brianzesco, tipsie, drunken, pot-sicke. |
a drunkard.
| ‘A Discovery by Sea’ in Works (1869) II 29: Eurey stiffe pot-valiant is a Post, beame, or Piller which holds vp the Brew-house. | |
| W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Aug. 1/1: Perth medicos are pocketing big fees from Government Printing Works chronic pot-valiants. The groggy typos obtain certificates for accidents which happen simultaneously with their Bacchic thirst. |
exhibiting the bravado that comes from imbibing alcoholic drink; thus pot valour.
| Womens sharpe revenge 104: We saw once one that was so Pot-valiant, that in revenge, hee with his sword thrust poore Iudith into the belly, because shee kil’d Holofernes. | |
| Distracted State III i: You are pot-valiant, sir, it seems . | |
| Poems 53: See the pot Valour here (Porter) I fear, / That you have somewhat more than you can bear. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Pot-valiant Drunk. | |
| London Spy XV 372: A West-Country Graziers Son [...] sat so long and so late, that he had made himself Pot-Valiant with his Countreymans Liquor. | |
| Drummer I i: What, you sot! are you grown pot-valiant? | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| Laugh and Be Fat 76: His Angry Helpmate [...] began to spirt out such provoking Messes of maudering Broth, in the very Teeth of her Pot-Valiant Spouse. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 117: Like a man who has drunk himself pot-valiant. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Correspondence with Coleridge 13 Apr. (1868) 146: Last night I had been in a sad quandary of spirits [...] but a pipe, and some generous Port, and King Lear (being alone) had their effects as solacers. I went to bed pot-valiant. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Mornings in Bow St. 109: The magistrate [...] ordered the pot-valiant coppersmith to be locked up until he should pay for the windows he had demolished. | |
| Oddities of London Life II 277: [T]he complainant, taking a long pull at the half-and-half, waxed pot valiant, and catching up the goose [...] challenged him to mortal combat. | |
| Margaret (1851) II 277: The old man is still mercurial; but his pot-valiantry is gone. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 22 Nov. 3/1: The whole posse comitatum [...] got glorious and pot-valiant. | |
| Portland Guardian 12 Feb. n.p.: Pot-valiant urchins training for the drop. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 May 3/3: Defendant—I know nothing about it, because I was drunk. Magistrate—I see; you were pot-valiant. | |
| Kendal Mercury 12 Jan. 5/2: The pot valiant farmer followed her, and again assaulted the lady. | |
| Dundee Courier 16 Apr. 4/1: One of the reserve forces [...] got pot valiant. | |
| S. Wales Echo 17 Dec. 8: The elected drowned their regrets in odky [sic, i.e. vodka] and becoming pot valiant, attacked and demolished the shops. | |
| S. Wales Dly News 24 Mar. 4/6: A Pot Valiant gang [...] were charged with being drunk and disorderly. | |
| Hants Advertiser 11 Nov. 6/7: Police-constable Osgood foudnhim ‘pot valiant’ and offering to fight anyone. | |
| Quinton’s Rouseabout and other Stories 179: Later on, when a little bit merry and pot-valiant, he proposed to her straight out, and Susan, to his unutterable joy and surprise, lent him a willing ear. | |
| ‘The Chosen Four’ in Naval Occasions 75: Waxing pot-valiant by reason of Marsala. |
In phrases
to circulate unsubstantiated information to encourage betting.
| Sporting Gaz. (London) 11 Feb. 11/3: Your tipster qui cito dat vere dat bis, / Misleading, but ‘boiling the pot’. |
(Aus.) to go on a drunken spree.
| Full Cycle 178: Once every two or three years old Whiner he goes on the pots [...] And take my word for it, the whole of Golden Ridge don’t hold old Whiner when he’s properly on the pots. |
to be drunk.
| Advice to a Son (1673) 28: Especially when they have got a pot in their pate . | |
| Farriery Impr. (1757) II 77: An Ox or a Cow would serve them to ride well enough, if they had only a Pot in the Pate [OED]. |
to be drunk.
| Mint (1955) 55: Jock had a pot on tonight in the wet canteen. |
to be drunk.
| Maison De Shine 206: When pop gits his pots on he’s dead to the world. | |
| ‘Dukie M’Kenzie’s Dawnce’ Benno and Some of the Push 34: Benno looked wise. ‘That’ll be all right,’ he said. ‘He’ll get his pot on. You leave it t’me.’. | |
| Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 18 Dec. 19/1: I knew he’d get his pots on some day [...] He ain’t no amateur booze hound, but this time he was potted especial. | |
| ‘Dancing Dan’s Christmas’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 266: You certainly have your pots on. | |
| ‘Drunk in Sl.’ in AS XVI:1 Jan. 70/1: has his pots on. |
(US) to drink excessively.
| Life In Sing Sing 258: Hitting the pots. Excessive drinking. | |
| Criminal Sl. 13: Hitting the pots.—Excessive drinking. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 407: Hitting the pots – drinking. | |
| ‘Lingo of the Good People’ in AS X:1 17/1: To Hit the Pot. To get drunk. |
drunk.
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Rhythm of Violence II iii: Come on, Jo, the only time your racialism shows is when you’ in the pots! |
to drink heavily.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
see under screamer n.
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(W.I.) describing a friendship that has come to an end.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
a convert to Roman Catholicism who is won over by the free provision of food and drink.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
a hawker of crockery, a cheap-jack.
| Sl. Dict. 259: Pot-faker a hawker of crockery and general earthenware. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
1. a bowler hat; thus pot-hatted adj.
| O.V.H. I 202: Jemmy [...] made a hasty apology, and securing a pot-hat, pea-jacket, and double thong as precaution, went to the servants’ hall. | |
| Sporting Times 22 Nov. 1/4: He remembered that Blobbs went East in a pot hat. | |
| Sporting Times 29 Mar. 2/1: His Grace wore a pot hat, no collar, brown overcoat. | |
| ‘Lou and Liz’ in Keating Working Class Stories of the 1890s (1971) 84: That fellow in the brown pot ’at dancing with the girl in a blue dress. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 3 June 3/2: Billy has lately bought [...] a pot hat with the object of awing and impressing the free and independent of Murrumbateman. | |
| In Bad Company 16: You’re to be a delegate with a pot hat and a watch chain. | |
| Society Snapshots 267: London’s awfully jolly when everybody’s away [...] No ceremony . . . pot hat you know! | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Aug. 35/2: Tom don’t want them pot-hatted coots to get past the brace nohow. [...] Everythink’s in a mess, and there aint been no carpets laid along the drives for them howlers to walk on, nor nothink. | |
| Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 394: Some of these blokes who went swaggering about in frock-coats and pot-’ats was just as ’ard-up as anyone else. | |
| Cowboy 106: The Range knew that the city-dwellers wore also ‘hard’ or ‘hard-boiled’ hats, subdivided into the two classes of, first, ‘derby’ or ‘pot’ and, second, ‘plug’ or ‘stovepipe’. | |
| ‘The Dance’ Rose of Spadgers 135: A tall, pot ’at / That caught the mange back in the diggin’s days. |
2. a low-crowned hat, as opposed to the more common top hat of the period.
| Sl. Dict. 259: Pot-hat a low-crowned hat, as distinguished from the soft wideawake and the stove-pipe. | |
| N&Q Ser. 7 XII 48: The term pot-hat... until lately I always thought was short for ‘chimney-pot hat,’ less reverently known as a tile; but at the present time it is often applied to a felt hat [F&H]. | |
| Redheap (1965) 248: [T]he dissolution of Grandpa Piper came as a great relief to the family, even announced by Uncle Jobson’s bellows amid the ruins of nine pot hats. |
see separate entry.
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
(US black) a cook.
| ‘Hectic Harlem’ in N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb. Section 2: POT RASSLERS. – Cooks. |
(US) a cook; thus v. pot-sling, to cook.
| Susan Lenox II 20: Yes, give me a job as a pot slinger even, low as that is. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 24 Nov. 12/1: ‘Get your own supper, sis [...] I will crack the enamel if I pot-sling’. | |
| Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. |
see separate entries.
a scullion, a kitchen-hand.
| Amer. Monthly Mag. and Critical Rev. 14: An equality of rank, therefore, entitles a pot-wrestler to a place on the same seat with her employers. | |
| A Solemn Warning Against Free-masonry 74: The awful con– consequence was, that JACHIN and BOAZ were hurled upon the floor by the rude hand of a pot-wrestler. | |
| Short Patent Sermons 76: Even Queen Victoria, whom they make such a fuss about, is made of no better dirt than any kitchen pot-wrestler, though she has prettier calicoes. | |
| Dict. Americanisms (4th edn). | |
| Democratic Northwest (Napoleon, OH) 30 Mar. 1/2: ‘Pot-wrestlers’ was the term we heard a ‘counter-jumper’ [...] apply to a couple of young ladies. | |
| Powers That Prey 31: Kit and Marge are a couple of clapper-tongued pot-wrestlers. | |
| Pilgrim and Pioneer 405: The owner of the gambling hall blandly referred to the cook as a ‘pot-wrestler,’ to the waiter as a ‘hash-slinger’. | |
| Seas of God 234: ‘Not pot-wrestler’s hands, Lydia, oh, no!’ he exclaimed. | |
| Home to Harlem 29: Smells lingered telling the nature of their occupation. Pot-wrestlers, third cooks, W. C. attendants. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 181: pot rassler A cook; a dish washer. | |
| (con. 1925–9) Negro in N.Y. 249: The house-rent party [...] blossomed in the 1920s. Mostly employed as ‘pot rasslers,’ [...] ‘sud busters,’ and ‘ham heavers,’ Negroes found their small salaries inadequate for Cotton Clubs. | |
| Dear Once 109: Get an education, do something with your brain, don’t figure on just getting married and being a pot wrestler forever. |
In phrases
(US) to calm down.
| Cogan’s Trade (1975) 152: Russell, get off the pot, all right? |
to die; also as dismissive excl.
| Humours of a Coffee-House 9 Jan. 87: You may remember [...] poor Thorp, Lord Chief Justice, went to the Pot, that is in plain English, he was Hang’d? | |
| Quinton’s Rouseabout and other Stories 230: Once you say to me: ‘When you come back again, Mr. Hassan?’ Now you say: ‘Go to the pot!’ Ah, well, every dog have his day. |
(US prison) to have (homosexual) sexual intercourse.
| On the Yard (2002) 337: I think they busted some guys with the pot on. |
in trouble.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 139: ‘Put in the pot,’ is said of a man who is let into a certain loss — of a wager, of his liberty, or life. |
to set one’s arms akimbo.
| Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 236: See what a goodly Port she bears, / Making the pot with two ears! |
to spend heavily, to use up one’s money and start begging.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. |
1. to be very poor.
| ‘A Holiday in Texas’ Texas Stories (1995) 40: Ah was beat an’ ah was starve — boys! — when ah was twenty ah didn’t have a pot to pitch in. | |
| Thieves Like Us (1999) 72: Pretty good for some old boys that didn’t have a pot or a window to throw it out three weeks ago. | |
| Tough Guy [ebook] ‘[W]here’d the wop be? Still down the East Side and lucky to have a pot to piss in’. | |
| Fings I i: Nuffink but a load of [...] tuppenny ’apenny whores without a pot between them. | |
| Guntz 97: Every one I had met [...] had never had a pot to piss in. | |
| (con. WWII) And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 319: That’s like saying I’m just as rich as you are, when neither one of us has a pot to piss in. | |
| Ghetto Sketches 225: Chu-man [...] ain’t got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. | |
| (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 349: I’m up to my ass in debt, Tom. I got a note due in three weeks. And not a pot to piss in. | |
| Godson 342: ‘If they had the money. But between them I don’t think they’ve got a pot to piss in’. | |
| Between the Devlin 85: [W]hen they arrived in Sydney they scarcely had a pot to piss in. | |
| Foetal Attraction (1994) 60: Better to go for a bloke who hasn’t got a pot to piss in, than that lot. | |
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 277: You know we ain’t got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. | |
| Noodling for Flatheads (2001) 98: The next day he’s a hillbilly without a pot to pee in. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘Not a pot to piss in. Or a window to throw it out’. | |
| Raiders 34: He didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. | |
| Viva La Madness 229: We [...] don’t think Mister de Lucia has a pot to piss in [...] or a window to throw it outta. | |
| ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Local nigguhs [...] They was eatin’ wit’ Don, and now they ain’t got a pot to piss in. | |
| Bobby March Will Live Forever 257: Kelly didn’t have a pot to piss in. | |
| Rules of Revelation 213: Never had a pot to piss in, so he took drastic measures to get what he feels the world owed him. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 291: [D]on’t got a sardine can to piss in. | |
| April Dead 226: ‘I will sue you until you don’t have a pot to piss in’. |
2. to be completely destroyed or overcome.
| 16 Sept. [synd. col.] ‘You must pitch in and do your part — I must pitch in and do my part — and if we don’t pitch in and do our part — we won’t have a part to pitch in’. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 191: Within one week Hot Rod Ralston is not going to have a pot to piss in. Four people that I know of are dead because of him and he’s going to pay for it. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 19: Bravo Company (who doesn’t have so much as a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of). |
3. to be stupid.
| (con. WWII) Hollywoodland (1981) 105: You think I’m deaf, dumb, and don’t have a pot to shit in? |
(W.I.) to take care of oneself; thus not put on the pot for, not make one’s pot bubble, to refuse to help someone.
| Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
to put on airs.
| Bristol Magpie 10 Aug. 5/1: You don’t bluster or put the pot on, and are by no means ambitious to cut a dash. | |
| ‘’Arry on Song and Sentiment’ in Punch 14 Nov. 229/1: And the D.T. jest trots him out reglar, whenever it puts on the pot. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
1. (also put someone’s pot away) to tell tales, to inform against, to destroy the hopes of (cf. put the pot on ).
| Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 109: Put the pot on: racing to upset the plans of anyone intent on winning a stake. | |
| Gadfly (Adelaide) 14 Mar. 9/1: ‘I said I’d put his pot on, and so I up and told the filly about his finances. ‘He’s dead broke,’ says I. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 13/2: When the boy who had seen these wonderful things returned he put the old cove’s pot on. [Ibid.] 31 Dec. 44/1: But, really, I have the rottenest luck. They fall in love with me all right; but something always happens to put my pot on. | |
| ‘Violet Again’ Me and Gus (1977) 52: I was to keep away, and not come and deliberately ‘put his pot on’ the way I’d just done. | |
| (con. 1830s–60s ) All That Swagger 344: It put old Learmont’s pot on properly. | |
| Poor Man’s Orange 190: I’ll tell the world she was right in there with the rest of them. I’ll put her pot on, the bitch, thinking she’s so holy. | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 237/2: put your pot on – inform, tell on you. | |
| Holy Smoke 46: The Chaldeans, who had a derry on the Christians [...] put their pot on with Neb. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 87/2: put someone’s pot on to finish somebody or expose. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
2. to catch someone out in wrong-doing.
| DSUE (8th edn) 941/1: since ca. 1945. |
1. to exaggerate.
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 193: To put the pot on, to overcharge or exaggerate. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
2. (also put on the pot) to bet (too) heavily on a horse.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 139: ‘I shall put on the pot at the July meeting’, signifies that the speaker will bet very high (at races), or up to thousands... Lord Abingdon once declared ‘I will put on the pot to-day’, and he did so with a vengeance. | |
| History of Gaming Houses & Gamesters 22: [of the champion racehorse, Eclipse] [I]ts owner naturally enough became desirous of ‘putting on the pot’. | |
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 24 Jan. 4/2: This was confirmation strong, to the hopes of those who had put the pot on to win half a dozen fortunes. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 17 Aug. 1/4: A good deal of money was laid out upon him at six to four and in some instances the Brums ‘put the pot on’ [...] at six to four. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 195: Put the pot on to bet too much upon one horse. ? Sporting. | |
| Won in a Canter III 9: Shirkington had put the pot on, and laid heavily against Lady Verriefast’s two horses. | |
| Colonial Reformer III 150: This is putting on the pot, my dear boy. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
3. (also put on a pot) to overcharge.
| see sense 1. | |
| Fun 29 May n.p.: ‘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 [F&H]. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Signor Lippo 100: When a regiment is coming home or a ship is to be paid off. He’ll go aboard and let the skates have a watch, nine carat gold chain coloured up to eighteen carat, letting ’em have the super and slang on mace, for he gets to know their account, and he puts the pot on ’em settling day. The Tommies he works by weekly instalments. |
4. (Aus.) to bring to a halt, to cancel.
| Truth (Sydney) 4 Nov. 5/6: How promptly Sir George Gibbs ‘put the pot on’ this proposal by refusing to ratify the election is well known. |
5. (Aus.) to inform [var. on put someone’s pot on ].
| World of Living Dead (1969) 124: There wuz wunst a time, boy, when a fit o’ spewin’ used to scare ’em into cuttin’ short the count, and so we got chewin’ chunks o’ soap ter turn our guts up. Then some pimp puts the pot on. |
see under sweeten v.