Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Potter?

\Pot"ter\, n. [Cf. F. potier.] 1. One whose occupation is to make earthen vessels. --Ps. ii. 9. The potter heard, and stopped his wheel. --Longfellow. 2. One who hawks crockery or earthenware. [Prov. Eng.] --De Quincey. 3. One who pots meats or other eatables. 4. (Zo["o]l.) The red-bellied terrapin. See {Terrapin}. {Potter's asthma} (Med.), emphysema of the lungs; -- so called because very prevalent among potters. --Parkers. {Potter's clay}. See under {Clay}. {Potter's field}, 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. {Potter's ore}. See {Alquifou}. {Potter's wheel}, a horizontal revolving disk on which the clay is molded into form with the hands or tools. ``My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel.'' --Shak. {Potter wasp} (Zo["o]l.), a small solitary wasp ({Eumenes fraternal}) which constructs a globular nest of mud and sand in which it deposits insect larv[ae], such as cankerworms, as food for its young.
\Pot"ter\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Pottered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Pottering}.] [Cf. W. pwtio to poke, or OD. poteren to search one thoroughly, Sw. p[*a]ta, peta, to pick, E. pother, put.] 1. To busy one's self with trifles; to labor with little purpose, energy, of effect; to trifle; to pother. Pottering about the Mile End cottages. --Mrs. Humphry Ward. 2. To walk lazily or idly; to saunter.
\Pot"ter\, v. t. To poke; to push; also, to disturb; to confuse; to bother. [Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.