potch

present singular third person potches · participle present potching · participle past potched · past potched

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo thrust.

   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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene x]

2. obsoletetransitiveTo trample.

   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

   1 more example

   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

1. AustraliauncountablechemistryA type of rough opal without colour, and therefore not worth selling.

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

   2 more examples

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

   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

present singular third person potches · participle present potching · participle past potched · past potched

1. transitiveTo bleach rags in paper-making.
2. obsoleteObsolete form of poach (“to cook in simmering water”).

   a Potched Egge

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

   3 more examples

   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

   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, 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.

   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

plural potches

1. JudaismA slap or spank. Alternative spellings include patsh, potsh.

   The pedagogical benefit to which the rebbe was referring and which Pinchas had “missed” was corporal punishment — the potches, hits or smacks — which teachers in this school regularly mete out, even to their 5- and 6-year-old students.

   2012 January 24, William Kolbrener, “The Perils Of ‘Potch Culture’”, in New York Jewish Week, New York, NY, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2025

   1 more example

   With a heavily-accented Yiddish he responded matter-of-factly, “I give patsh”. A bit taken aback, our instructor followed up by asking that rebbi what he did when his students had done something right. Surprised by the question, the older man responded, “I don’t give patsh.”

   2026 March 12, Rabbi Akiva Males, “Were the Ba’alei Tosafos Familiar with Aesop or Buddhism?”, in The Seforim Blog, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2026, I – The European Cheder Rebbi and the Ba’alei Tosafos

1. informalPotchefstroom (South African city).