Dictionary

potboy en · NOUN

Etymology

From pot + boy.

Meanings

1. A boy employed in a plant nursery to tap clay pots with a stick for their ringing sound, indicating whether the plant required watering.
   • GC&HTJ 1985 volume 198 page 17
2. A boy employed as waiter to serve (pots of) drinks, as in a tavern.
   • I put on my kitchen potboy disguise and rode down to B-1 in an elevator that smelled like chicken soup, barbecue sauce, and Jack Daniel's. 2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 782:
3. (UK) A boy or man employed in a public house to collect empty pots or glasses.
   • (“Hoo-roa,” ejaculates a pot-boy in a parenthesis, “put the kye-bosh on her, Mary.”) 1837, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. The Second Series, London: John Macrone, […], →OCLC, chapter SEVEN DIALS, page 149:

Forms

Relateds

potman · busboy · pot-girl