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 1885. D. Telegraph, 28 Dec. Below the composer's mark, and distinctly of the pot-boiling order.

1887. Lippincott's Mag., July, 160. Colonel Higginson, for example—advises a connection with a newspaper. Doubtless as a pot-boiler that would be a good thing.

1888. Globe, 17 Oct. It is quite impossible for an author to produce a level series of books First there is a good book, then a pot-boiler, perhaps two pot-boilers, perhaps more, and then a a return to the old form.

1892. Sala's Journal, 2 July, 239. Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three I must have produced myself many scores of pot-boilers.

2. (provincial).—A housekeeper.

3. (scientific).—See quot.

1874. Dawkins, Cave Hunting, iii. Among the articles of daily use were many rounded pebbles, with marks of fire upon them, which had probably been heated for the purpose of boiling water. Pot-boilers, as they are called, of this kind are used by many savage peoples at the present day, and if we wished to heat water in a vessel that would not stand the fire, we should be obliged to employ a similar method.

Potching, subs. (waiters?).—See quot. [Century: Potch = an obsolete form of 'poach.']

1883. Graphic, 17 March, 283, 3. Good-natured customers may imagine that if they have given a fee to the waiter who presents the bill, they may hand another to the usual man who has attended upon them; but head-waiters are alive to the perils of this practice, which they call potching (probably from poaching), and dismissal will be the punishment of the waiter who is caught taking vails on the sly.

Pot-faker, subs. phr. (common).—A hawker; a Cheap-jack (q.v.): spec. one dealing in crockery.

Pot-gun, subs. phr. (old).—1. A toy gun: pop-gun is a later form: see Pop, verb.

1550. Udal, Roister Doister [Arber], 73. Bryng with thee my potgunne hangyng by the wall.

1585. Nomenclator, s.v. Sclopus, &c. A pot-gun made of an elderne sticke, or hollow quill, whereout boyes shoote chawen paper.

1610. Hall, Married Clergy, 148. They are but as the potguns of boys.

d.1637. Jonson [Moxon, Works, 719]. The ratling pit-pat noise Of the less poetic boys, When their potguns aim to hit With their pellets of small wit.

1707. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, 1. xii. 16. Such dreadful Pot-guns of Correction, That threaten'd nothing but Destruction.

1899. Whiteing, John St. [1901], 80. Pigeons may be killed, of course, with a pop-gun in a back-yard.

2. (old).—A reproach.

1623. Webster, Duch. of Malfi, iii. 3. I saw a Dutchman break his pate once For calling him pot-gun.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iii. 8. That sign of a man there—that pot-*gun charged with wind.

Pot-hat, subs. phr. (common).—See quot 1891.

1869. Bradwood, O. V. H., xi. Jemmy securing a pot-hat, pea-jacket, and double-thong as precaution, went to the servants' hall.

1889. Sporting Times, 3. Aug., 3, 1. A gentlemanly young fellow in a tweed suit and a pot hat.

1891. Notes and Queries, 7 S. xii. 48. The term pot-hat until lately I always thought was short for 'chimney-pot hat,' less reverently known as a 'tile'; but at the present time it is often applied to a felt hat.

1896. Sala, London Up to Date, 62. I should respectfully advise him not to be in the habit of perambulating Pall Mall in a suit of dittoes and a pot hat.

Potheen, subs. (Irish).—Illicit whiskey. Also potsheen.