UK /ˈpɒk.ɪt/ · US /ˈpɑ.kɪt/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms pockets pocketing pocketting pocketed pocketted
- noun (clothing) A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.
- noun (by extension) A person's financial resources. “I paid for it out of my own pocket.”
- noun (sports, billiards, pool, snooker) An indention and cavity with a net sack or similar structure (into which the balls are to be struck) at each corner and one centered on each side of a pool or snooker table.
- noun An enclosed volume of one substance surrounded by another. “The drilling expedition discovered a pocket of natural gas.”
- noun (Australia) An area of land surrounded by a loop of a river.
- noun (Australian rules football) The area of the field to the side of the goal posts (four pockets in total on the field, one to each side of the goals at each end of the ground). The pocket is only a roughly defined area, extending from the behind post, at an angle, to perhaps about 30 meters out.
- noun (American football) The area behind the line of scrimmage subject to certain rules regarding intentional grounding, illegal contact, etc., formally extending to the end zone but more usually understood as the central area around the quarterback directly protected by the offensive line.
- noun (military) An area where military units are completely surrounded by enemy units.
- verb (transitive) To put (something) into a pocket.
- verb (billiards, snooker, pool) To cause a ball to go into one of the pockets of the table; to complete a shot.
- verb (transitive, informal) To take and keep (something, especially money, that is not one's own). “Record executives pocketed most of the young singer's earnings.”
- verb (transitive, informal, dated) To put up with; to bear without complaint.
- adjective Of a size suitable for putting into a pocket. “a pocket dictionary”
- adjective Smaller or more compact than usual. “pocket battleship”
- adjective (Texas hold'em poker) Belonging to the two initial hole cards. “a pocket pair of kings”
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
pocketbook backfield passing pocket tackle box pot trouser pocket-size pocket-sized pouch sac sack scoop air pocket air hole bag
Etymology
From Middle English pocket (“bag, sack”), from Anglo-Norman poket, Old Northern French poquet, poquete, diminutive of poque, poke (“bag, sack”) (compare modern Norman pouquette and modern French pochette from Old French pochete, from puche), from Frankish *pokō (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *puhô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Equivalent to poke + -et. Doublet of pochette. Cognate with Middle Dutch poke, Alemannic German Pfoch (“purse, bag”), Old English pocca, pohha (“poke, pouch, pocket, bag”), Old Norse poki (“bag, pocket”). Compare the related poke (“sack or bag”). See also Modern French pochette and Latin bucca.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A bag or pouch; especially; a small bag inserted in a garment for carrying small articles, particularly money; hence, figuratively, money; wealth.
- noun One of several bags attached to a billiard table, into which the balls are driven.
- verb To put, or conceal, in the pocket; as, to pocket the change.
- verb To take clandestinely or fraudulently.
Etymology [OE. poket, Prov. F. & OF. poquette, F. pochette, dim. fr. poque, pouque, F. poche; probably of Teutonic origin. See Poke a pocket, and cf. Poach to cook eggs, to plunder, and Pouch.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pocket”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details