pocket

From Middle English pocket (“bag, sack”), from Anglo-Norman poket, Old Northern French poquet, poquete, diminutive of poque, poke (“bag, sack”) (compare modern French pochette from Old French pochete, from puche), from Frankish *pokka, *poka (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *pukkô, *pukô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *buk-, *bu-, *beu- (“to blow, swell”). 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.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑkɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒkɪt/
• Hyphenation: pock‧et

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɒkɪt

pocket (plural pockets)

1. A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Case of Miss Elliott‎:

     “Do I fidget you ?” he asked apologetically, whilst his long bony fingers buried themselves, string, knots, and all, into the capacious pockets of his magnificent tweed ulster.

2. Such a receptacle seen as housing someone's money; hence, financial resources.

   I paid for it out of my own pocket.

   • 2012, Simon Heffer, "In Fagin's Footsteps", Literary Review, 403:

     There was, for much of the period, no cheap public transport; and even the Underground, or one of Shillibeer's horse-drawn omnibuses, was beyond the pocket of many of the poor.

3. (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.
4. An enclosed volume of one substance surrounded by another.
   • 2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Time‎:

     She knew from avalanche safety courses that outstretched hands might puncture the ice surface and alert rescuers. She knew that if victims ended up buried under the snow, cupped hands in front of the face could provide a small pocket of air for the mouth and nose. Without it, the first breaths could create a suffocating ice mask.

   The drilling expedition discovered a pocket of natural gas.

5. (Australia) An area of land surrounded by a loop of a river.
6. (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.
7. (American Football) The region directly behind the offensive line in which the quarterback executes plays.
8. (military) An area where military units are completely surrounded by enemy units.
9. (rugby) The position held by a second defensive middle, where an advanced middle must retreat after making a touch on the attacking middle.
   • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Matt Stevens was crumpled by Euan Murray in another scrum, allowing Parks to kick for the corner, and when Richie Gray's clean take from the subsequent line-out set up a series of drives under the posts, Parks was back in the pocket to belt over a drop-goal to make it 9-3 at the interval.

10. 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.
11. (architecture) A hole or space covered by a movable piece of board, as in a floor, boxing, partitions, etc.
12. (mining) A cavity in a rock containing a nugget of gold, or other mineral; a small body of ore contained in such a cavity.
13. (nautical) A strip of canvas sewn upon a sail so that a batten or a light spar can placed in the interspace.
14. The pouch of an animal.
15. (bowling) The ideal point where the pins are hit by the bowling ball.
16. A socket for receiving the base of a post, stake, etc.
17. A bight on a lee shore.
18. (dentistry) A small space between a tooth and the adjoining gum, formed by an abnormal separation of the two.

• poke

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

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

1. To put (something) into a pocket.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii], page 346, column 1:

     [Y]ou / Did pocket vp my Letters: and with taunts / Did gibe my Miſive out of audience.

2. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) To cause a ball to go into one of the pockets of the table; to complete a shot.
3. (slang) To take and keep (especially money) that which is not one's own.
4. (slang) To shoplift, to steal.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To receive (an insult, an affront, etc.) without open resentment, or without seeking redress.
   • William Shakespeare

     Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs.

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

pocket (not comparable)

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

   pocket dictionary

2. Smaller or more compact than usual.

   pocket battleship, pocket beach

3. (Texas hold'em poker) Referring to the two initial hole cards.

   A pocket pair of kings.

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

• bag
• pouch
• purse
• sack

pocket c

1. paperback; book with flexible binding

• pocketbok