a bag, sack, or similar receptacle, esp. one for small articles or quantities: a tobacco pouch.
2.
a small moneybag.
3.
a bag for carrying mail.
4.
a bag or case of leather, used by soldiers to carry ammunition.
5.
something shaped like or resembling a bag or pocket.
6.
Chiefly Scot.a pocket in a garment.
7.
a baggy fold of flesh under the eye.
8.
Anatomy,Zoology. a baglike or pocketlike part; a sac or cyst, as the sac beneath the bill of pelicans, the saclike dilation of the cheeks of gophers, or the receptacle for the young of marsupials.
9.
Botany. a baglike cavity.
–verb (used with object)
10.
to put into or enclose in a pouch, bag, or pocket; pocket.
11.
to arrange in the form of a pouch.
12.
(of a fish or bird) to swallow.
–verb (used without object)
13.
to form a pouch or a cavity resembling a pouch.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME pouche < AF, var. of OF poche; also poke, poque bag. See poke2]
c.1384, "small bag in which money is carried," from Anglo-Fr. puche, O.N.Fr. pouche (13c.), O.Fr. poche, from a Gmc. source (cf. O.E. pocca "bag;" see poke (n.1)). Extended to cavities in animal bodies from c.1450.
Poach\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Poached; p. pr. & vb. n. Poaching.] [F. pocher to place in a pocket, to poach eggs (the yolk of the egg being as it were pouched in the white), from poche pocket, pouch. See Pouch, v. & n.]1. To cook, as eggs, by breaking them into boiling water; also, to cook with butter after breaking in a vessel. --Bacon. 2. To rob of game; to pocket and convey away by stealth, as game; hence, to plunder. --Garth.
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.
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