Potlatch

Quick meaning: Potlatch is a noun meaning (Canada, US, chiefly Alaska) A communal meal to which guests bring dishes to share; a potluck.

Meaning

(Canada, US, chiefly Alaska) A communal meal to which guests bring dishes to share; a potluck.

More Meanings

1. (transitive) To give; especially, to give as a gift during a potlatch ceremony.
2. (intransitive) To carry out or take part in a potlatch ceremony.
3. (Canada, US, also figuratively) A ceremony amongst certain indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in which gifts are bestowed upon guests and personal property is destroyed in a show of generosity and wealth.

Example Sentences

That night there was a grand wedding and a potlach; so that for two days to follow there was no fishing done by the village.

Corporations will now have to justify all their internal pricing decisions up front. This will be a potlatche^([sic]) for economic consultants. But it will be a huge burden for honest business taxpayers, and it won't bring us much closer to a solution.

No potlatch or secret society initiation could be given by a tribal member until the chief had officially opened the winter ceremonial season. His affairs took priority over those sponsored by lineage heads, who must provide him with wealth befor they were able to accumulate for their own potlatches.

Anyway, I lie here and imagine grandfather celebrating a heavenly potlache – (heaven is the only place he'll ever celebrate it, for it's long since been forbidden by the government here on earth) – and the great Christian gates are opening for him now, and behind him the charred remains of his pipe and his blue denims bear witness to the last potlache of all.

Word Forms

• potlatches
• potlach
• potlache
• potlatching
• potlatched

Synonyms for potlatch

Depending on context, synonyms include fuddle.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include potlach, potluck, tchotchke, toke, playock, toque.

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