Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Poach

Poach (pōch), 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.

Poach, v. i. To steal or pocket game, or to carry it away privately, as in a bag; to kill or destroy game contrary to law, especially by night; to hunt or fish unlawfully; as, to poach for rabbits or for salmon.

Poach, v. t. [Cf. OF. pocher to thrust or dig out with the fingers, to bruise (the eyes), F. pouce thumb, L. pollex, and also E. poach to cook eggs, to plunder, and poke to thrust against.] 1. To stab; to pierce; to spear, \as fish. [Obs.] Carew.

2. To force, drive, or plunge into anything. [Obs.]

His horse poching one of his legs into some hollow ground. Sir W. Temple.

3. To make soft or muddy by trampling Tennyson.

4. To begin and not complete. [Obs.] Bacon.

Poach, v. i. To become soft or muddy.

Chalky and clay lands . . . chap in summer, and poach in winter. Mortimer.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.