| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| pocket |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | pock·et |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  p k  t |
| NOUN: | 1. 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. 2. A small sack or bag. 3. A receptacle, cavity, or opening. 4. Financial means; money supply: The cost of the trip must come out of your own pocket. 5a. A small cavity in the earth, especially one containing ore. b. A small body or accumulation of ore. 6. A pouch in an animal body, such as the cheek pouch of a rodent or the abdominal pouch of a marsupial. 7. Games One of the pouchlike receptacles at the corners and sides of a billiard or pool table. 8. Baseball The deepest part of a baseball glove, just below the web, where the ball is normally caught. 9. 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. 10a. A small, isolated, or protected area or group: pockets of dissatisfied voters. b. 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. 11. An air pocket. 12. A bin for storing ore, grain, or other materials. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Suitable for or capable of being carried in one's pocket: a pocket handkerchief; a pocket edition of a dictionary. 2. Small; miniature: a pocket backyard; a pocket museum. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: pock·et·ed, pock·et·ing, pock·ets
1. To place in or as if in a pocket. 2. To take possession of for oneself, especially dishonestly: pocketed the receipts from the charity dance. 3a. To accept or tolerate (an insult, for example). b. To conceal or suppress: I pocketed my pride and asked for a raise. 4. To prevent (a bill) from becoming law by failing to sign until the adjournment of the legislature. 5. Sports To hem in (a competitor) in a race. 6. Games To hit (a ball) into a pocket of a pool or billiard table. | | IDIOMS: | in (one's) pocket In one's power, influence, or possession: The defendant had the jury in his pocket. in pocket 1. Having funds. 2. Having gained or retained funds of a specified amount: was a hundred dollars in pocket after a day at the races. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, pouch, small bag, from Anglo-Norman pokete, diminutive of Old North French poke, bag, of Germanic origin. | | OTHER FORMS: | pocket·a·ble —ADJECTIVE
pocket·less —ADJECTIVE
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
