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Definition of potter - 10 dictionary results
Pottery
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pot⋅ter

1  [pot-er]
Use potter in a Sentence
–noun
a person who makes pottery.
Origin:
bef. 1100; ME; late OE pottere. See pot 1 , -er 1
Pottery
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pot⋅ter

2  [pot-er]
–verb (used without object), noun Chiefly British.
putter 1 .
Origin:
1520–30; freq. of obs., dial. pote to push, poke, ME poten, OE potian to push, thrust. See put, -er 6

Related forms:
pot⋅ter⋅er, noun
pot⋅ter⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Pot⋅ter

  [pot-er]
–noun
1. Be⋅a⋅trix  [bee-uh-triks] , 1866–1943, English writer and illustrator of children's books.
2. Paul, 1625–54, Dutch painter.

put⋅ter

1  [puht-er]
–verb (used without object)
1. to busy or occupy oneself in a leisurely, casual, or ineffective manner: to putter in the garden.
2. to move or go in a specified manner with ineffective action or little energy or purpose: to putter about the house on a rainy day.
3. to move or go slowly or aimlessly; loiter.
–noun
4. puttering or ineffective action; dawdling.
—Verb phrase
5. putter away, to spend or fill in a random, inconsequential, or unproductive way; fritter away; waste: We puttered the morning away.
Also, especially British, potter.

Origin:
1875–80; var. of potter 2

Related forms:
put⋅ter⋅er, noun
put⋅ter⋅ing⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To potter
pot·ter 1   (pŏt'ər)   
n.  One who makes pottery.
pot·ter 2   (pŏt'ər)   
v.   Chiefly British
Variant of putter2.
Pot·ter   (pŏt'ər)   
British writer and illustrator. Her animal stories include The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1900) and The Tailor of Gloucester (1902).
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
Word Origin & History

putter 
"keep busy in a rather useless way," 1877 alteration of potter (q.v.).

potter  (n.)
late O.E. pottere, O.Fr. potier, from root of pot (1). First record of pottery is attested from 1483, "a potter's workshop," from O.Fr. poterie (13c.), from potier. Meaning "pottery-ware" is first recorded 1785. Potter's field (1526) is Biblical, a ground where clay suitable for pottery was dug, later purchased by high priests of Jerusalem as a burying ground for strangers, criminals, and the poor (Matt. xxvii.7).

potter  (v.)
1530, "to poke again and again," frequentative of obsolete poten "to push, poke," from O.E. potian "to push" (see put). Sense of "occupy oneself in a trifling way" is first recorded 1740.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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