pocket

English Online Dictionary. What means pocket‎? What does pocket mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English pocket (“bag, sack”), from Anglo-Norman poket, Old Northern French poquet, poquete, diminutive of poque, poke (“bag, sack”) (compare modern Norman pouquette and modern French pochette from Old French pochete, from puche), from Frankish *pokō (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *pukkô, *pukô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Equivalent to poke +‎ -et. Doublet of pochette. Cognate with Middle Dutch poke, Alemannic German Pfoch (“purse, bag”), Old English pocca, pohha (“poke, pouch, pocket, bag”), Old Norse poki (“bag, pocket”). Compare the related poke (“sack or bag”). See also Modern French pochette and Latin bucca.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒ.kɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑ.kɪt/
  • (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑ.kət/
• (General Australian, Canada, Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔ.kɪt/
• Hyphenation: pock‧et
• Rhymes: -ɒkɪt

Noun

pocket (plural pockets)

2. (clothing) A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.
3. (by extension) A person's financial resources.

   Synonym: pocketbook
5. (sports, billiards, pool, snooker) An indention and cavity with a net sack or similar structure (into which the balls are to be struck) at each corner and one centered on each side of a pool or snooker table.
6. An enclosed volume of one substance surrounded by another.

7. (Australia) An area of land surrounded by a loop of a river.
8. (Australian rules football) The area of the field to the side of the goal posts (four pockets in total on the field, one to each side of the goals at each end of the ground). The pocket is only a roughly defined area, extending from the behind post, at an angle, to perhaps about 30 meters out.
9. (American football) The area behind the line of scrimmage subject to certain rules regarding intentional grounding, illegal contact, etc., formally extending to the end zone but more usually understood as the central area around the quarterback directly protected by the offensive line.
   • 2014 June 20, Gregor Bozic, "Ramblings: Classic Pocket Passers versus Mobile Quarterbacks", Football Outsiders:

     For many years, the popular belief among NFL analysts was that the success of an NFL team comes with a quarterback who can stand tall in the pocket and deliver the ball downfield. Members of the elite group of active quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, for instance, also earned their reputation by making plays almost exclusively from the pocket.

   • 2019 Dec. 6, Josh Hermsmeyer, "Teams Are Excelling when Their QBs Leave the Pocket. Can that Continue?", FiveThirtyEight:

     With some notable exceptions, NFL teams that are successful on dropbacks outside the pocket have tended to win more games

   • 2021, Official Playing Rules of the National Football League, §26: Pocket Area:

     The Pocket Area is the area between the outside edges of the normal tackle positions on each side of the center extending backward to the offensive team's end line. After the ball leaves the pocket area, this area no longer exists.

10. (military) An area where military units are completely surrounded by enemy units.
11. (rugby) The position held by a second defensive middle, where an advanced middle must retreat after making a touch on the attacking middle.
12. (surfing) The unbroken part of a wave that offers the surfer the most power.
13. A large bag or sack formerly used for packing various articles, such as ginger, hops, or cowries; the pocket of wool held about 168 pounds.
14. (architecture) A hole or space covered by a movable piece of board, as in a floor, boxing, partitions, etc.
15. (mining) A cavity in a rock containing a nugget of gold, or other mineral; a small body of ore contained in such a cavity.
16. (nautical) A strip of canvas sewn upon a sail so that a batten or a light spar can placed in the interspace.
17. The pouch of an animal.
18. (bowling) The ideal point where the pins are hit by the bowling ball.
19. A socket for receiving the base of a post, stake, etc.
20. A bight on a lee shore.
21. (dentistry) A small space between a tooth and the adjoining gum, formed by an abnormal separation of the two.
22. A small, isolated group or area.
23. (music) A state achieved with steady, enjoyable drumming.

Synonyms

• (US football): backfield, passing pocket, tackle box

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: ポケット
• → Welsh: poced

Translations

Further reading

• Pocket in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Verb

pocket (third-person singular simple present pockets, present participle pocketing or pocketting, simple past and past participle pocketed or pocketted)

1. (transitive) To put (something) into a pocket.
2. (billiards, snooker, pool) To cause a ball to go into one of the pockets of the table; to complete a shot.
3. (transitive, informal) To take and keep (something, especially money, that is not one's own).
4. (transitive, informal, dated) To put up with; to bear without complaint.

Synonyms

• (in billiards, etc): pot
• (take and keep, etc): trouser

Derived terms

• pocket up

Translations

Adjective

pocket (not comparable)

1. Of a size suitable for putting into a pocket.

2. Smaller or more compact than usual.
3. (Texas hold'em poker) Belonging to the two initial hole cards.

Synonyms

• (of a size suitable for a pocket): pocket-size, pocket-sized

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• bag
• pouch
• purse
• sack

References

• “pocket”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Cornish

Noun

pocket m (plural pocketow or pocketys)

1. pocket

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English pocket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔ.kət/
• Hyphenation: poc‧ket

Noun

pocket m (plural pockets)

1. a pocket book, a portable book of compact size, usually a paperback

Derived terms

• pocketwoordenboek

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English pocket.

Noun

pocket c

1. paperback; book with flexible binding

   Synonym: pocketbok

Declension

Derived terms

• pocketrea
• pocketupplaga
• pocketutgåva

Yola

Alternative forms

• pucket

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish pocaid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔkət/, /ˈpʊkət/

Noun

pocket

1. A lump of bread.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 62