Meanings
plural Pottery Barn rules
- A policy by which a retail store holds a customer responsible for damage done to merchandise on display.
- governmentThe principle that a country that invades or overthrows the government of another is responsible for stabilising and rebuilding that country.
Under these circumstances, the United States and its allies acted unjustly in invading Iraq. Does this set of circumstances give us any reason to think that the Pottery Barn rule now provides us with practical guidance?
2014 April 24, Don E. Scheid, The Ethics of Armed Humanitarian Intervention, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 138
Origin
Named after the American home furnishing chain Pottery Barn (though the chain does not have such a policy).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Pottery Barn rule. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pottery%20Barn%20rule
“Pottery Barn rule.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pottery%20Barn%20rule. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Pottery Barn rule,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pottery%20Barn%20rule.
Source: Pottery Barn rule on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.