pocket definition | Dictionary.com

pock⋅et

[pok-it]

–noun

1.	a shaped piece of fabric attached inside or outside a garment and forming a pouch used esp. for carrying small articles.

2.	a bag or pouch.

3.	means; financial resources: a selection of gifts to fit every pocket.

4.	any pouchlike receptacle, compartment, hollow, or cavity.

5.	an envelope, receptacle, etc., usually of heavy paper and open at one end, used for storing or preserving photographs, stamps, phonograph records, etc.: Each album has 12 pockets.

6.	a recess, as in a wall, for receiving a sliding door, sash weights, etc.

7.	any isolated group, area, element, etc., contrasted, as in status or condition, with a surrounding element or group: pockets of resistance; a pocket of poverty in the central city.

Mining.

a.	a small orebody or mass of ore, frequently isolated.

b.	a bin for ore or rock storage.

c.	a raise or small slope fitted with chute gates.

9.	Billiards, Pool. any of the pouches or bags at the corners and sides of the table.

10.	a position in which a competitor in a race is so hemmed in by others that his or her progress is impeded.

11.	Football. the area from which a quarterback throws a pass, usually a short distance behind the line of scrimmage and protected by a wall of blockers.

12.	Bowling. the space between the headpin and the pin next behind to the left or right, taken as the target for a strike.

13.	Baseball. the deepest part of a mitt or glove, roughly in the area around the center of the palm, where most balls are caught.

14.	Nautical. a holder consisting of a strip of sailcloth sewed to a sail, and containing a thin wooden batten that stiffens the leech of the sail.

15.	Anatomy. any saclike cavity in the body: a pus pocket.

16.	stage pocket.

17.	an English unit of weight for hops equivalent to 168 pounds (76.4 kg).

–adjective

18.	small enough or suitable for carrying in the pocket: a pocket watch.

19.	relatively small; smaller than usual: a pocket war; a pocket country.

–verb (used with object)

20.	to put into one's pocket: to pocket one's keys.

21.	to take possession of as one's own, often dishonestly: to pocket public funds.

22.	to submit to or endure without protest or open resentment: to pocket an insult.

23.	to conceal or suppress: to pocket one's pride.

24.	to enclose or confine in or as if in a pocket: The town was pocketed in a small valley.

25.	Billiards, Pool. to drive (a ball) into a pocket.

26.	pocket-veto.

27.	to hem in (a contestant) so as to impede progress, as in racing.

—Idioms

28.	in one's pocket, in one's possession; under one's influence: He has the audience in his pocket.

29.	line one's pockets, to profit, esp. at the expense of others: While millions were fighting and dying, the profiteers were lining their pockets.

30.	out of pocket, having suffered a financial loss; poorer: He had made unwise land purchases, and found himself several thousand dollars out of pocket.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME poket < ONF (Picard) poquet (OF pochet, pochette), dim. of poque < MD poke poke ² ; see -et

Related forms:

pock⋅et⋅less, adjective

pock⋅et⋅like, adjective

Synonyms:
21. steal, pilfer, appropriate, filch.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To pocket

New BlackBerry® PDA
Find More, Know More, Do More. BlackBerry pulls it all together.

www.BlackBerry.com

pock·et (pŏk'ĭt)

A small baglike attachment forming part of a garment and used to carry small articles, as a flat pouch sewn inside a pair of pants or a piece of material sewn on its sides and bottom to the outside of a shirt.
A small sack or bag.
A receptacle, cavity, or opening.
Financial means; money supply: The cost of the trip must come out of your own pocket.
1. A small cavity in the earth, especially one containing ore.
2. A small body or accumulation of ore.
3. A small, isolated, or protected area or group: pockets of dissatisfied voters.
4. Football The area a few yards behind the line of scrimmage that blockers attempt to keep clear so that the quarterback can pass the ball.
A pouch in an animal body, such as the cheek pouch of a rodent or the abdominal pouch of a marsupial.
Games One of the pouchlike receptacles at the corners and sides of a billiard or pool table.
Baseball The deepest part of a baseball glove, just below the web, where the ball is normally caught.
Sports A racing position in which a contestant has no room to pass a group of contestants immediately to his or her front or side.
1. A small, isolated, or protected area or group: pockets of dissatisfied voters.
2. Football The area a few yards behind the line of scrimmage that blockers attempt to keep clear so that the quarterback can pass the ball.
An air pocket.
A bin for storing ore, grain, or other materials.

adj.

Suitable for or capable of being carried in one's pocket: a pocket handkerchief; a pocket edition of a dictionary.
Small; miniature: a pocket backyard; a pocket museum.

tr.v. pock·et·ed, pock·et·ing, pock·ets

To place in or as if in a pocket.
To take possession of for oneself, especially dishonestly: pocketed the receipts from the charity dance.
1. To accept or tolerate (an insult, for example).
2. To conceal or suppress: I pocketed my pride and asked for a raise.
To prevent (a bill) from becoming law by failing to sign until the adjournment of the legislature.
Sports To hem in (a competitor) in a race.
Games To hit (a ball) into a pocket of a pool or billiard table.

[Middle English, pouch, small bag, from Anglo-Norman pokete, diminutive of Old North French poke, bag, of Germanic origin.]
pock'et·a·ble adj., pock'et·less adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Pocket

Pock"et\, n. Any hollow place suggestive of a pocket in form or use; specif.: (a) A bin for storing coal, grain, etc. (b) A socket for receiving the foot of a post, stake, etc. (c) A bight on a lee shore.

Pocket

Pock"et\, n. [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.]

1. A bag or pouch; especially; a small bag inserted in a garment for carrying small articles, particularly money; hence, figuratively, money; wealth.

2. One of several bags attached to a billiard table, into which the balls are driven.

3. A large bag or sack used in packing various articles, as ginger, hops, cowries, etc.

Note: In the wool or hop trade, the pocket contains half a sack, or about 168 Ibs.; but it is a variable quantity, the articles being sold by actual weight.

4. (Arch.) A hole or space covered by a movable piece of board, as in a floor, boxing, partitions, or the like.

5. (Mining.) (a) A cavity in a rock containing a nugget of gold, or other mineral; a small body of ore contained in such a cavity. (b) A hole containing water.

6. (Nat.) A strip of canvas, sewn upon a sail so that a batten or a light spar can placed in the interspace.

7. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Pouch.

Note: Pocket is often used adjectively, or in the formation of compound words usually of obvious signification; as, pocket comb, pocket compass, pocket edition, pocket handkerchief, pocket money, pocket picking, or pocket-picking, etc.

Out of pocket. See under Out, prep.

Pocket borough, a borough "owned" by some person. See under Borough. [Eng.]

Pocket gopher (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of American rodents of the genera Geomys, and Thomomys, family Geomyd[ae]. They have large external cheek pouches, and are fossorial in their habits. they inhabit North America, from the Mississippi Valley west to the Pacific. Called also pouched gopher.

Pocket mouse (Zo["o]l.), any species of American mice of the family Saccomyid[ae]. They have external cheek pouches. Some of them are adapted for leaping (genus Dipadomys), and are called kangaroo mice. They are native of the Southwestern United States, Mexico, etc.

Pocket piece, a piece of money kept in the pocket and not spent.

Pocket pistol, a pistol to be carried in the pocket.

Pocket sheriff (Eng. Law), a sheriff appointed by the sole authority of the crown, without a nomination by the judges in the exchequer. --Burrill.

Pocket

Pock"et\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pocketed; p. pr. & vb. n. Pocketing.]

1. To put, or conceal, in the pocket; as, to pocket the change.

He would pocket the expense of the license. --Sterne.

2. To take clandestinely or fraudulently.

He pocketed pay in the names of men who had long been dead. --Macaulay.

To pocket a ball (Billiards), to drive a ball into a pocket of the table.

To pocket an insult, affront, etc., to receive an affront without open resentment, or without seeking redress. "I must pocket up these wrongs." --Shak.

Language Translation for : pocket

Spanish: bolsillo,

German: die Tasche; Taschen-…,

Japanese: ポケット

More Translations »

pocket

1210, "bag, sack," from Anglo-Fr. pokete (13c.), dim. of O.N.Fr. poque "bag," from Frank. *pokka "bag," from Gmc. *puk- (see poke (n.)). Meaning "small bag worn on the person, especially one sewn into a garment" is from c.1430. Mining sense is attested from 1850; military sense of "area held by troops surrounded by the enemy" is from 1918. The verb, with implications of dishonesty, is from 1637. Pocket-book (1617) was originally "a book-like case for papers, etc.;" meaning "a woman's purse" is from 1816. Pocket-knife is first recorded 1727; pocket-money is attested from 1632.

Main Entry: pock·et
Pronunciation: 'päk-&t
Function: noun
: a small cavity or space; especially : an abnormal cavity formedin diseased tissue pocket>

pocket pock·et (pŏk'ĭt)
n.

In anatomy, a cul-de-sac or pouchlike cavity.
A diseased space between the inflamed gum and the surface of a tooth.
A collection of pus in a nearly closed sac.

v. pock·et·ed, pock·et·ing, pock·ets

To enclose within a confined space.
To approach the surface at a localized spot, as with the thinned out wall of an abscess which is about to rupture.

pocket

In addition to the idioms beginning with pocket, also see deep pockets; in one's pocket; in pocket; line one's pockets; money burns a hole in one's pocket; out of pocket.

Search another word or see pocket on Thesaurus | Reference

Pocketbike
Find LA Pocketbike. Post free classifieds at Kijiji!
www.Kijiji.com

Superbikes and Choppers
Dirt Bikes Choppers Free Shipping Toll Free 1-866-910-8999

www.FancyScooters.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Advertise with Us · Link to Us · NASCAR® · Contact Us