Word.ws English Dictionary

poach

/ˈpoʊt͡ʃ/

poach verb: to cook (something) in simmering or very hot liquid (usually water; sometimes wine, broth, or otherwise).

poach: to cook (something) in simmering or very hot liquid (usually water; sometimes wine, broth, or...
Image: Caff Williams, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

poach (third-person singular simple present poaches, present participle poaching, simple past and past participle poached)

  1. (transitive) To cook (something) in simmering or very hot liquid (usually water; sometimes wine, broth, or otherwise).
    • Eldridge closed the despatch-case with a snap and, rising briskly, walked down the corridor to his solitary table in the dining-car. Mulligatawny soup, poached turbot, roast leg of lamb—the usual railway dinner.1931, Francis Beeding, “1/1”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps
  2. (intransitive) To be cooked in such manner.
    • The white of an egg with spirit of wine, doth bake the egg into clots, as if it began to poach.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...

Noun (1)

poach (plural poaches)

  1. The act of cooking in simmering liquid.
    • Peaches are so perfect they need very little to make them extra special—just a quick poach in basil-scented rosé wine and a few adoring strawberries.2005, Jill Dupleix, Good Cooking: The New Basics, page 152

Verb (2)

poach (third-person singular simple present poaches, present participle poaching, simple past and past participle poached)

  1. (ambitransitive) To trespass on another's property to take fish or game.
  2. (ambitransitive) To take game or fish illegally.
    • A 2016 study using carbon dating of more than 200 tusks from seizures spanning nine countries suggested that illegal ivory originates from elephants poached recently, instead of being pilfered from aging stockpiles kept by various nations.2021 November 12, Christine Chung, “2 Ivory Smugglers Captured in International Operation, U.S. Says”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  3. (ambitransitive, broadly) To take anything illegally or unfairly.
    • Chelsea's embarrassment was symbolised by Ross Barkley's inexplicable header straight to the feet of Aguero to poach his second and Ilkay Gundogan capped that early blitz with a low drive.2019 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 6-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport
  4. (figuratively) To intrude; to interfere; to get involved inappropriately, without welcome.
    • to poach in foreign academic disciplines
  5. (ambitransitive) To entice (an employee or customer) to switch from a competing company to one's own.
    • What's going on here? Are you trying to poach my teamaker?2006 November 3, Tim Hedrick, “Lake Laogai” (2:58 from the start), in Lauren MacMullan, director, Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 2 (Book Two: Earth), episode 17, spoken by Pao (George Cheung)
    • EBay has accused three Amazon managers of illegally conspiring to poach its sellers, escalating a monthslong feud between two of the country’s largest e-commerce companies.2019 August 1, Karen Weise, “EBay Accuses Amazon Managers of Conspiring to Poach Its Sellers”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  6. To make soft or muddy by trampling.
    • Cattle coming to drink had punched and poached the river bank into a mess of mud.
    • the poach'd filth that floods the middle street1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC
  7. To become soft or muddy by being trampled on.
    • Chalky and clay lands […] chap in summer, and poach in winter.1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC
  8. (obsolete) To stab; to pierce; to spear or drive or plunge into something.
    • They vse alſo to poche them with an instrument somewhat like the Sammon-speare1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC
    • his horse poching one of his legs into some hollow ground1673, William Temple, Observations upon the United Provinces

Noun (2)

poach (plural poaches)

  1. The act of taking something unfairly, as in tennis doubles where one player returns a shot that their partner was better placed to return.

poach meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

poach in Tamil

ஒடுநீக்கிய முட்டை வேக்காடு

poach in Malayalam

കുത്തുക, ചവിട്ടി ചളിയാക്കുക, അതിക്രമിച്ചു കടക്കുക, മുട്ട പൊരിക്കുക

poach in Kannada

ಬೇಯಿಸು, ಒಳಹೊಗು, ಕದ್ದುಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಕುದಿನೀರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಯಿಸು, ಅನುಮತಿಯಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಬೇಟೆಯಾಡು, ಅತಿಕ್ರಮಿಸು

Examples of poach in a sentence

  • The poached blubber was definitely cetacean in origin, but the particular species could not be identified.
  • The essential ingredients of salad lyonnaise are bacon, croutons and poached egg.
  • The rival company's sales force is poaching on our turf.

All 33 example sentences with poach

Synonyms of poach

27 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of poach

Forms of poach

Verb
third-person singular presentpoaches
present participlepoaching
past participlepoached
pastpoached
Noun
pluralpoaches

Past tense of poach: poached

Origin of poach

From Middle English pochen (“to poach (eggs)”), from Old French pocher "to put (egg yolks) in pockets" (i.e. in bags formed by the whites), from Old French poche (“pocket”).

From Old French pocher, pochier (“to trample, poach into”). Doublet of poke.

Words formed from poach

Words that rhyme with poach

Questions about poach

What does poach mean?
Poach means to cook (something) in simmering or very hot liquid (usually water; sometimes wine, broth, or otherwise).
What is poach in Tamil?
Poach in Tamil is ஒடுநீக்கிய முட்டை வேக்காடு. See Poach meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is poach?
Poach can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce poach?
Poach is pronounced /ˈpoʊt͡ʃ/.
What is the past tense of poach?
The past tense of poach is poached.

Words near poach in the dictionary

  1. poa pitha
  2. POAC
  3. poaceous
  4. poacevirus
  5. poaceviruses
  6. poach
  7. poach up
  8. poachable
  9. poachard
  10. poachards
  11. poached

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poach (page history and authors); poach (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poach (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poach (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-poach.wav.

Cite this entry: “poach.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poach. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.