potboy

plural potboys · alternative pot boy · alternative pot-boy

1. A boy employed in a plant nursery to tap clay pots with a stick for their ringing sound, indicating whether the plant required watering.

   GC&HTJ 1985 volume 198 page 17

2. A boy employed as waiter to serve (pots of) drinks, as in a tavern.

   I put on my kitchen potboy disguise and rode down to B-1 in an elevator that smelled like chicken soup, barbecue sauce, and Jack Daniel's.

   2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 782

3. UKA boy or man employed in a public house to collect empty pots or glasses.

   (“Hoo-roa,” ejaculates a pot-boy in a parenthesis, “put the kye-bosh on her, Mary.”)

   1837, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. The Second Series, London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC, chapter SEVEN DIALS, page 149