Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to outdo, to outwit, to deceive; thus potter, a trickster.

1848		Era (London) 17 Sept. 5/2: I was pleased as punch to see the Nobblers and Potters done.
1855		T. Taylor Still Waters Run Deep II ii: A greater flat was never potted.
1880		E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ Punch Almanack Feb. n.p.: Crab your enemies, I’ve got a many, / You can pot ’em proper for a penny.
1894		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 3 Nov. 2/4: They Say [...] The Potters met the Lyndhurst second match last season and took them down. Clay boys say they will again ‘Pot’ them.

2. to shoot, esp. food for eating; thus potting n.

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 [F&H].
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 451: That doesn’t include turning out to be potted at like a woodcock.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 81: ‘Shooting landlords like the devil. Potted Lambert last week’.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 11: ‘I raised my gun to pot him [i.e. a tiger] and my hand was on the trigger’.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 June 1/2: There is hardly a man in North Queensland whose motto is not ‘See a nigger and “pot” him’.
1883		J. Keane On Blue Water 145: One of the boys [...] wanted to know if a soldier, after he was shot, wasn’t potted lobster.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 8 May 7/2: He speared and potted each derned cuss / As he chanced to meet.
1885		‘’Arry on the Merry Month of May’ Punch 16 May 229/1: Day’s rabbittin’s not a bad barney, and gull-potting’s lummy, no doubt.
1885		L. Emanuel Jottings [...] of a Bengal ‘qui hye’ 18: This brave but rash oficer [...] was deliberately ‘potted’.
1886		I.D. Hardy Oranges and Alligators 30: A third has ‘potted’ an alligator, about five feet long.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 343: He could see to fire at a top window close by where the doctor and Mr. Knightley had been potting at us.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 301: The dingo almost missed me, but it was my rifle which potted him.
1898		Boy’s Own Paper 12 Nov. 103: Has everyone got catties and shot with them? [...] They might be very useful for potting at the masters on the drive.
1901		Marvel XV:390 Apr. 10: I warn you and your men to sheer off, and if you are not on the return journey in three seconds, we’ll pot you!
1902		‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 16 Nov. 5/4: ‘[E]f yer crops failed [...] Yous just loaded up yer gun an’ started out an’ potted, er cove whose crop wos better’.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 102: Fat Belly potted it.
1913		D. Runyon ‘Mexican Love Song’ 5 Nov. [synd. col.] I love to [...] dream of pleasant scenes / Like pottin’ burglin’ jockeys from the stands.
1915		‘Ian Hay’ First Hundred Thousand (1918) 202: Their snipers go potting way all night, but they don’t often get anybody.
1915		L.D. Richards diary 9 May 🌐 It’s a wonder we weren’t potted off, as most of the time we could be seen by the enemy.
1919		E. Dyson ‘Mickie Mollynoo’ ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 44: I pots the extra one; / Mick chokes his third in comfort.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 37: I’ll pot a Fritz every chance I get.
1926		S. O’Casey Plough and the Stars Act II: Supposin’ I happened to be potted?
1931		D. Runyon ‘Dream Street Rose’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 57: Do not think it will do you any good to pot me in the back when I turn around.
1941		P. Gallico Snow Goose 42: [British speaker] We was roostin’ on the beach between Dunkirk an’ Lapanny, like a lot o’ bloomin’ pigeons on Victoria Hembankment, waitin’ for Jerry to pot us. ‘E potted us good too.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 90: He would ‘a’ tried to pot me.
1948		R. Park Harp in South 82: Wild boys and girls who had specialized in potting king’s Men from behind hedges.
1953		‘Curt Cannon’ ‘The Death of Me’ I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 100: As far as Grafton knows, he potted the right pigeon.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 41: With Riffs or whatever they’re called potting at him from all directions.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 98: They didn’t even see me. They were all too busy trying to pot you guys.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 154: You can’t [...] take on half a dozen terrorists armed with machine-guns like you’re goin’ out pottin’ rabbits.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 130: He craved a three-o-three Short Lee Enfield service rifle to pot one of the tyres.

3. to punish.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 23 May 6/2: In the libel suit of Dove v. the London Referee is perhaps the choicest example of what juries will do when they lose their heads or there’s a newspaper to be ‘slated.’ […] Dove bought an action and ‘potted’ the paper for £300.

4. to appropriate.

1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 24 May 25: [caption] Iky Mo’s last words to Ally were — ‘Give anything to one, as long as you pot the stake’.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Love Began’ Sporting Times 8 Feb. 1/3: He’d no claim to be the only bird she’d potted; / It transpired that other love-birds had been victims of her sport, / And they all had been successfully small shotted.

5. to take from, to extort.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Aug. 4/4: And the ‘Queen gave the bride away.’ There was magnanimity for you! To give her child away to a poor young man and pot the nation for the ‘dot!’.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Sept. 26/1: What gave me the rift in the gizzard was that one of the mob booted the carpet off me arf-a-quid lid, and another potted a new stook and four jim that I was goin’ to weigh out for me new clobber.

6. (Aus./N.Z.) to throw a stone.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 162: pot [...] 2. To throw a stone, shortened version of pot-shot.

7. (US) to hit, to strike.

1909

Gem 23 Jan. 18: He meant to pot your hat, but he might easily have potted your brain-box by mistake!

8. (Aus./N.Z.) in Und. uses.

9. to render drunk.

1947

I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 10: The zombie really had potted him.

10. (S.Afr.) to drink.

1977

C. Hope Ducktails in Gray Theatre Two (1981) 51: jimmie: What you potting in there? bo-bo: Brandy. jimmie: Give you a terrible babalas, Bo-bo.

11. of a man, to seduce, to have sexual intercourse with.

1998

G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 200: [Her father] potted two of his daughters.