Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be busy in doing little, or what is of little or no practical value; busy one's self over trifles; trifle; work with little energy or purpose.
  • To hobble; walk slowly and with difficulty; move slowly; loiter.
  • To walk upon or leap from piece to piece of floating ice. Bartlett. [Local, U.S.]
  • To poke; push; disturb.
  • noun One whose occupation is the making of pots or earthenware vessels of any kind.
  • noun One who peddles earthenware or crockery.
  • noun One who pots meats, vegetables, etc.
  • noun A fresh-water clemmyoid turtle, Deirochelys serrata, of the United States.
  • noun The slider, or red-bellied terrapin, Pseudemys rugosa. See slider. [Local, U. S.]
  • noun In a larger sense, any earth used in the ceramic art, including kaolin, a so-called blue clay which is of a grayish color and when fired is white, and a black clay so called, which also results in a white biscuit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One whose occupation is to make earthen vessels.
  • noun Prov. Eng. One who hawks crockery or earthenware.
  • noun One who pots meats or other eatables.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The red-bellied terrapin. See Terrapin.
  • noun (Med.) emphysema of the lungs; -- so called because very prevalent among potters.
  • noun See under Clay.
  • noun a public burial place, especially in a city, for paupers, unknown persons, and criminals; -- so named from the field south of Jerusalem, mentioned in Matt. xxvii. 7.
  • noun See Alquifou.
  • noun a horizontal revolving disk on which the clay is molded into form with the hands or tools.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small solitary wasp (Eumenes fraternal) which constructs a globular nest of mud and sand in which it deposits insect larvæ, such as cankerworms, as food for its young.
  • intransitive verb To busy one's self with trifles; to labor with little purpose, energy, of effect; to trifle; to pother.
  • intransitive verb To walk lazily or idly; to saunter.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To poke; to push; also, to disturb; to confuse; to bother.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who makes pots and other ceramic wares.
  • noun idiomatic, biblical God, the creator.
  • noun One who places flowers or other plants inside their pots.
  • verb obsolete To poke repeatedly.
  • verb UK To act in a vague or unmotivated way.
  • verb UK To move slowly or aimlessly. (Often potter about, potter around)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb work lightly
  • verb move around aimlessly
  • verb do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly
  • noun a craftsman who shapes pottery on a potter's wheel and bakes them it a kiln

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pottere, from Old French potier

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Reduplicative alteration of pote.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word potter.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Variant of putter. Also one who makes pots. And presumably one who potsplants. And. . .

    July 20, 2007