Meaning

(archaic) A former unit of volume, equivalent to half a gallon, used for liquids and corn; a pot or drinking vessel of around this size..

Definitions by Sense

1. (archaic) A former unit of volume, equivalent to half a gallon, used for liquids and corn; a pot or drinking vessel of around this size.
2. (New Zealand) A small food container, usually made of plastic or cardboard, typically used for containing hot chips, yoghurt or other foodstuffs.
3. (archaic) A small pot or other receptacle, e.g. for strawberries.
4. (transitive) To place in a pottle.

Example Sentences

c. 1605, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore Part 2, London: Nathaniel Butter, 1630, a pottle of Greeke wine

Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle can be filled.

And yonder sate Desborough with a dry pottle of sack before him, which he had just emptied, and which, though the element in which he trusted, had not restored him sense enough to speak, or courage enough to look over his shoulder.

Outside, I ripped open the bag to reveal the chips were sitting inside a paper pottle. A pottle!

Did you know that the six and four-pack pottle yogurts – the kind we buy for lunches – can’t be recycled.

In recent weeks, he’s been taken aback by the price of the fresh fruit and vegetables they use for their pottles of raw fish.

2005, Dan Keding and Amy Douglas (eds.), English Folktales, World Folklore Series, Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, →ISBN, page 21, "I was wondering whether you’ve got such a thing as a pottle of brains to spare?"

Strawberry pottles are often half cabbage leaves, a few tempting strawberries being displayed on the top of the pottle.

Word Forms

• pottles
• pottling
• pottled

Synonyms for pottle

Related Words

When Should You Use Pottle?

Use pottle when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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