English
editEtymology
editFrom 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 *pokā (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *pukkô, *pukô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). 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.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɒ.kɪt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɑ.kɪt/
Audio (US): (file) - (weak vowel merger) IPA(key): /ˈpɑ.kət/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈpɔ.kɪt/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Hyphenation: pock‧et
- Rhymes: -ɒkɪt
Noun
editpocket (plural pockets)
- (clothing) A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.
- 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 1, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
- “Do I fidget you ?” he asked apologetically, whilst his long bony fingers buried themselves, string, knots, and all, into the capacious pockets of his magnificent tweed ulster.
- (by extension) A person's financial resources.
- Synonym: pocketbook
- I paid for it out of my own pocket.
- 2012, Simon Heffer, “In Fagin's Footsteps”, in Literary Review, section 403:
- There was, for much of the period, no cheap public transport; and even the Underground, or one of Shillibeer's horse-drawn omnibuses, was beyond the pocket of many of the poor.
- 2022 April 6, “Network News: Spring Statement: Sunak accused of making rail less competitive”, in RAIL, number 954, page 8:
- "The financial impact of the fuel duty cut on people's pockets will in fact be minimal, […] "
- (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.
- An enclosed volume of one substance surrounded by another.
- 2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Time[1]:
- She knew from avalanche safety courses that outstretched hands might puncture the ice surface and alert rescuers. She knew that if victims ended up buried under the snow, cupped hands in front of the face could provide a small pocket of air for the mouth and nose. Without it, the first breaths could create a suffocating ice mask.
- The drilling expedition discovered a pocket of natural gas.
- (Australia) An area of land surrounded by a loop of a river.
- (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.
- (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.
- 2014 June 20, Gregor Bozic, "Ramblings: Classic Pocket Passers versus Mobile Quarterbacks", Football Outsiders:
- For many years, the popular belief among NFL analysts was that the success of an NFL team comes with a quarterback who can stand tall in the pocket and deliver the ball downfield. Members of the elite group of active quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, for instance, also earned their reputation by making plays almost exclusively from the pocket.
- 2019 Dec. 6, Josh Hermsmeyer, "Teams Are Excelling when Their QBs Leave the Pocket. Can that Continue?", FiveThirtyEight:
- With some notable exceptions, NFL teams that are successful on dropbacks outside the pocket have tended to win more games
- 2021, Official Playing Rules of the National Football League, §26: Pocket Area:
- 2014 June 20, Gregor Bozic, "Ramblings: Classic Pocket Passers versus Mobile Quarterbacks", Football Outsiders:
- (military) An area where military units are completely surrounded by enemy units.
- (rugby) The position held by a second defensive middle, where an advanced middle must retreat after making a touch on the attacking middle.
- 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport[2]:
- Matt Stevens was crumpled by Euan Murray in another scrum, allowing Parks to kick for the corner, and when Richie Gray's clean take from the subsequent line-out set up a series of drives under the posts, Parks was back in the pocket to belt over a drop-goal to make it 9-3 at the interval.
- (surfing) The unbroken part of a wave that offers the surfer the most power.
- A large bag or sack formerly used for packing various articles, such as ginger, hops, or cowries; the pocket of wool held about 168 pounds.
- (architecture) A hole or space covered by a movable piece of board, as in a floor, boxing, partitions, etc.
- (mining) A cavity in a rock containing a nugget of gold, or other mineral; a small body of ore contained in such a cavity.
- (nautical) A strip of canvas sewn upon a sail so that a batten or a light spar can placed in the interspace.
- The pouch of an animal.
- (bowling) The ideal point where the pins are hit by the bowling ball.
- A socket for receiving the base of a post, stake, etc.
- A bight on a lee shore.
- (dentistry) A small space between a tooth and the adjoining gum, formed by an abnormal separation of the two.
- A small, isolated group or area.
- 2020 November 4, Paul Bigland, “At no point have I felt unsafe...”, in Rail, page 47:
- They are comfortable trains with decent windows, ideal for observing a line which is one of the last pockets of manually operated crossing gates and semaphore signalling - [...].
- (music) A state achieved with steady, enjoyable drumming.
- in the pocket
Synonyms
edit- (US football): backfield, passing pocket, tackle box
Derived terms
edit- Alabama hot pocket
- back-pocket
- back pocket
- be in the pocket of someone
- besom pocket
- book pocket
- breast pocket
- burn a hole in someone's pocket
- camas pocket gopher
- cheat the pocket
- cosh pocket
- deep pocket
- double besom pocket
- frog in one's pocket
- frost pocket
- green pocket
- Henry's pocket
- hip-pocket
- hip pocket
- hip-pocket client
- hip-pocket flask
- hip pocket frog
- hop pocket
- in one's back pocket
- in one's hip pocket
- in one's pocket
- in pocket
- inside pocket
- in someone's pocket
- in the pocket
- in the pocket of someone
- is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me
- is there a mouse in your pocket
- kangaroo pocket
- love pocket
- map pocket
- micropocket
- one-pocket
- out of one's own pocket
- out-of-pocket
- out of pocket
- patch pocket
- pick-pocket
- pill in the pocket
- pizza pocket
- pocketable
- pocket battleship
- pocket bike
- pocket billiards
- pocket-book
- pocket book
- pocket borough
- pocket bra
- pocket bread
- pocket call
- pocket-call
- pocket cartoon
- pocket cartoonist
- pocket CD
- pocket change
- pocket clock
- pocket computer
- pocket-dial
- pocket dial
- pocket diaper
- pocket dictionary
- pocket door
- pocket edition
- pocket-flask
- pocket gopher
- pocket-handkerchief
- pocket handkerchief
- pocket-hole
- pocket-hole jig
- pocket-knife
- pocket knife, pocketknife
- pocket lamp
- pocket light
- pocket litter
- pocket melon
- pocket money
- pocket monster
- pocket mouse
- pocket nappy
- pocket net
- pocket pair
- pocket park
- pocket pet
- pocket piece
- pocket pistol
- pocket pool
- pocket-pool
- pocket protector
- pocket pussy
- pocket rocket
- pocket rockets
- pocket-sheriff
- pocket square
- pocket symphony
- pocket T
- pocket trumpet
- pocket T-shirt
- pocket universe
- pocket-watch
- poly pocket
- prison pocket
- punched pocket
- slash pocket
- spring pocket
- stercoral pocket
- subpocket
- trouser pocket
- vest-pocket
- watch pocket
- water pocket
- wetter than an otter's pocket
- yellow pocket
- you got a mouse in your pocket
Related terms
editTranslations
edit
|
|
Further reading
editVerb
editpocket (third-person singular simple present pockets, present participle pocketing, simple past and past participle pocketed)
- (transitive) To put (something) into a pocket.
- c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 346, column 1:
- [Y]ou / Did pocket vp my Letters: and with taunts / Did gibe my Miſive out of audience.
- (billiards, snooker, pool) To cause a ball to go into one of the pockets of the table; to complete a shot.
- (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.
- The thief was caught on camera pocketing the diamond.
- 2023, 85-year-old man arrested for stealing condoms from convenience store:
- The store manager, a woman in her 50s, saw Sasaki pocket the condoms and detained him at the entrance to the store, while another employee called police.
- 2024 October 16, Howard Johnston, “GBR is now in motion... but change will be a slow process”, in RAIL, number 1020, page 27:
- Under the Shadow GBR, it will be interesting to see how the government resolves the current mismatch whereby the DfT is responsible for spending money, but HM Treasury pockets the cash from train operators.
- (transitive, informal, dated) To put up with; to bear without complaint.
- 1810, Great Britain. Parliament, The Parliamentary Register, page 557:
- As long as the house suffered the practice to prevail, they must submit to pocket the insult of being told that it existed.
Synonyms
editDerived terms
editTranslations
edit
|
|
|
Adjective
editpocket (not comparable)
- Of a size suitable for putting into a pocket.
- a pocket dictionary
- Smaller or more compact than usual.
- 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger:
- She ate, drank, worked, danced, and made love in exactly the same way: con brio. She came into the apartment like a pocket hurricane.
- 2024 January 19, Larry Elliott, John Collingridge, quoting Radosław Sikorski, “Casting their shadow: how Trump, Putin and AI dominated talk at Davos”, in The Guardian[3], →ISSN:
- “There is never a shortage of pocket [Neville][sic] Chamberlains willing to sacrifice other people’s land for their own peace of mind,” Sikorski said.
- (Texas hold'em poker) Referring to the two initial hole cards.
- a pocket pair of kings
Synonyms
edit- (of a size suitable for a pocket): pocket-size, pocket-sized
Derived terms
editTranslations
edit
|
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
editReferences
edit- “pocket”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Cornish
editNoun
editDutch
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editpocket m (plural pockets)
Derived terms
editSwedish
editEtymology
editNoun
editpocket c
Declension
editDerived terms
editYola
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English coket, original c- was misread.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editReferences
edit- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 62
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old Northern French
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɒkɪt
- Rhymes:English/ɒkɪt/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Clothing
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Sports
- en:Billiards
- en:Snooker
- Australian English
- en:Australian rules football
- en:Football (American)
- en:Military
- en:Rugby
- en:Surfing
- en:Architecture
- en:Mining
- en:Nautical
- en:Bowling
- en:Dentistry
- en:Music
- English terms with collocations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English informal terms
- English dated terms
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- en:Poker
- Cornish lemmas
- Cornish nouns
- Cornish masculine nouns
- kw:Clothing
- Dutch terms borrowed from English
- Dutch terms derived from English
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Swedish terms borrowed from English
- Swedish terms derived from English
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns
- Yola terms inherited from Middle English
- Yola terms derived from Middle English
- Yola terms with IPA pronunciation
- Yola lemmas
- Yola nouns