potato-trap
The mouth.—Originally a Hibernicism.
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potatoe trap
The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent. IRISH WIT.
potemkin village
A fake or pretentious display of prosperity or quality
potential for something
Likelihood or possibility of something happening
potheen
Whisky made in an illicit still, once a favourite drink in Ireland, now almost unattainable. People resident in England who read of the charms of POTHEEN would be rather astonished if they were to taste it. It is real "fire-water" flavoured with peat-smoke.
pothooks and hangeks
A scrawl, bad writing.
pots and pans
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
potshot
Drunk.
potted
Drunk.
potted
Or POTTED OUT, cabined, confined, figurative of crammed into a garden-pot. Also applied to burial,—a horticultural allusion.
potter
To meddle without much judgment. Application various. A gentleman may describe himself as "POTTERING about in his garden," and think the phrase pleasant. The gardener, who has to do the work all over again, may, however, use the word in quite a different sense.
potter's clay
A person easily influenced or molded
potter's field
A burial ground for unknown or indigent people
potter’s
(H. T., of Clay, Worcestershire) New Dictionary of all the Cant and Flash Languages, both ancient and modern, 8vo, pp. 62. 1790.
potty mouth
Someone who frequently uses profanity or swear words
poulter
The Discoveries of John Poulter, alias Baxter, 8vo, 48 pages. (1770?)
Poulter's Measure
In prosody, a metre con- sisting of alternate Alexandrines and four- teeners, i.e. twelve-syllable and fourteen- syllable lines.
poulterer
A person that guts letters; i.e. opens them and secretes the money. The kiddey was topped for the poultry rig; the young fellow was hanged for secreting a letter and taking out the contents.
pound
To beat. How the milling cove pounded the cull for being nuts on his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow for taking liberties with his mistress.
pound a beat
to repeatedly and forcefully emphasize something
pound of flesh
Demanding something strictly according to an agreement
pound of flesh
The whole bargain, the exact terms of the agreement, the bond literatim et verbatim. The allusion is to Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice, who bargained with An- tonio for a "pound of flesh," but was foiled in his suit by Portia, who said the bond was expressly a pound of flesh, and therefore (1) the Jew must cut the exact quantity, neither more nor less than a just pound; and (2) in so doing he must not shed a drop of blood.
pound one's flounder
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
pound sand
to waste time doing something useless
pound the pavement
to walk around a city looking for a job
pounded
Inebriated.
pour cold water on
Discourage.
pour cold water over
to discourage or express disapproval of an idea
pour down the drain
To waste or lose something, especially money or effort
pour fuel on the fire
To make a bad situation worse by adding to the anger or excitement
pour gasoline on the fire
to make a bad situation worse
pour honey in one's ear
to flatter or try to influence someone with kind words
pour honey on
to speak kindly or flatter someone
pour oil on troubled waters
To calm a difficult or tense situation
pour one out
Honor someone's memory with a symbolic gesture
pour one's heart out
To express one's deepest feelings or emotions openly
poverty is the reward of idleness
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
pow-wow
A conference. Originally an Indian term.
powder keg
A situation that is ready to explode into violence or chaos
powder monkey
A boy on board a ship of war, whose business is to fetch powder from the magazine.
power
A large quantity; "a POWER of money."—Irish at first, but now general.
power coffee
a strong coffee that helps increase energy and alertness
power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
The corrupting influence of power is total when one's power is total.
power grab
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
power lunch
A lunch meeting where business or important decisions are made
power luncher
A person who networks or conducts business over lunch
power lunching
Having lunch for business or professional purposes
Power of Attorney
Legal authority given to another to collect rents, pay wages, invest money, or to act in matters stated in the instrument, according to his own judgment. In such cases quod aliquis fadt per aliquemy facit per se.
power of the pencil
The ability to create or influence through writing or drawing
power of the purse
The ability to control spending and budget decisions
power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
powers that be
People in authority or control
praccy
Practice.
Practical and Practicable
These two words are often confused in common usage. Practical means adapted to*actual conditions, pertaining to action not theory or speculation. A prac- tical man is one better adapted to doing manual jobs than to speculating about them. A prac- tical joke (rarely a joke to its victim, be* it observed) is a piece of humour that depends on some action on the part of the perpetrator, usually to the discomfiture of the subject.
practice what you preach
Act in accordance with your own advice or principles
prad
A horse. The swell flashes a rum prad: the e gentleman sports a fine horse.
prad
A horse. PRAD-NAPPING was horse-stealing. Both these terms are old cant.
prad lay
Cutting bags from behind horses. CANT.
Pragmatic Sanction
Sanctio iii Latin means a "decree or ordinance with a penalty attached," or, in other words, a "penal statute." Prag- maticus means "relating to state affairs/* so that Pragmatic Sanction is a penal statute bear- ing on some important question of state. The terra was first applied by the Romans to those statutes which related to their provinces.
Pragmatic Sanction of St
Louis, 1268, for- bade the court of Rome to levy taxes or collect subscriptions in France without the express sanction of the king. It also gave plaintiffs in the ecclesiastical courts the right to appeal to the civil courts. The "Constitutions of Claren- don" were to England what the "Pragmatic Sanction" was to France.
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