Word.ws English Dictionary

pocket

Syllables: pock·etUK/ˈpɒk.ɪt//ˈpɑ.kɪt/

pocket noun: a bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.

pocket: a bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items
Image: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pocket (plural pockets)

  1. A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.
    • “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.1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 1, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co....
  2. (broadly) A person's financial resources.
    • I paid for it out of my own pocket.
    • It should be remembered, however, that [Sir Thomas] Lawrence, who was now in demand, was charging from eighty to a hundred guineas for even his smallest portraits, a sum which would have been far beyond the pocket or inclination of the canny North countryman [George Stephenson], who had little use...1960 February, H. C. P. Smail, “New portrait of George Stephenson”, in Railway Magazine, page 93
    Synonyms:
    pocketbook
  3. 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.
    • 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...2012 December 26, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2013
    • 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. 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.
    • 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...2014 June 20, Gregor Bozic, "Ramblings: Classic Pocket Passers versus Mobile Quarterbacks", Football Outsiders
    • With some notable exceptions, NFL teams that are successful on dropbacks outside the pocket have tended to win more games2019 Dec. 6, Josh Hermsmeyer, "Teams Are Excelling when Their QBs Leave the Pocket. Can that Continue?", FiveThirtyEight
  8. An area where military units are completely surrounded by enemy units.
  9. The position held by a second defensive middle, where an advanced middle must retreat after making a touch on the attacking middle.
    • 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.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport
  10. The unbroken part of a wave that offers the surfer the most power.
  11. 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.
  12. A hole or space covered by a movable piece of board, as in a floor, boxing, partitions, etc.
Show 9 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A cavity in a rock containing a nugget of gold, or other mineral; a small body of ore contained in such a cavity.
  2. A strip of canvas sewn upon a sail so that a batten or a light spar can placed in the interspace.
  3. The pouch of an animal.
  4. The ideal point where the pins are hit by the bowling ball.
  5. A socket for receiving the base of a post, stake, etc.
  6. A bight on a lee shore.
  7. A small space between a tooth and the adjoining gum, formed by an abnormal separation of the two.
  8. A small, isolated group or area.
    • They are comfortable trains with decent windows, ideal for observing a line which is one of the last pockets of manually operated crossing gates and semaphore signalling - [...].2020 November 4, Paul Bigland, “At no point have I felt unsafe...”, in Rail, page 47
  9. A state achieved with steady, enjoyable drumming.
    • in the pocket

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To put (something) into a pocket.
    • [Y]ou / Did pocket vp my Letters: and with taunts / Did gibe my Miſive out of audience.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • […] I ſtopt ſhort, and, pocketting my ducats in a great hurry, took out ſome rials, approached the hat, that was expoſed for the reception of charity extorted from chriſtians by fear, and dropt them into it, one after another, that the beggar might ſee how nobly I uſed him.1749, [Alain-René Lesage], “Of His Being Grievously Alarmed in His Way to Pennaflor: […]”, in [Tobias George Smollett], transl., The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, volume I, London: […] J....
  2. To cause a ball to go into one of the pockets of the table; to complete a shot.
    Synonyms:
    pot
  3. (informal, transitive) To take and keep (something, especially money, that is not one's own).
    • Record executives pocketed most of the young singer's earnings.
    • The thief was caught on camera pocketing the diamond.
    Synonyms:
    trouser
  4. (dated, informal, transitive) To put up with; to bear without complaint.
    • As long as the house suffered the practice to prevail, they must submit to pocket the insult of being told that it existed.1810, Great Britain. Parliament, The Parliamentary Register, page 557

Adjective

pocket (not comparable)

  1. Of a size suitable for putting into a pocket.
    • a pocket dictionary
  2. Smaller or more compact than usual.
    • pocket battleship
    • pocket beach
  3. (Texas hold'em poker) Belonging to the two initial hole cards.
    • a pocket pair of kings

Proper noun capitalized: Pocket

Pocket (plural Pockets)

  1. A surname.
    • I derived from this speech that Mr. Herbert Pocket (for Herbert was the pale young gentleman's name) still rather confounded his intention with his execution.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 29
    • Pollyanna Pocket was small, with long floppy ears and a tail that coiled upwards in a little ringlet. She was a bouncy, happy young dog, who frolicked all day2014, Dot and the Waves, page 10

pocket meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pocket in Hindi

bag stitched to an item of clothing
जेब jeb, चेद ced

pocket in Tamil

bag stitched to an item of clothing
பாக்கெட் pākkeṭ

pocket in Marathi

bag stitched to an item of clothing
खिसा khisā
to put into a pocket
खिश्यात घालणे khiśyāt ghālṇe

pocket in Urdu

bag stitched to an item of clothing
جیب jeb
More languagesFewer languages
pocket in Bengali
পকেট pokeṭ, জেব jeb
pocket in Telugu
జేబు jēbu
pocket in Malayalam
കീശ kīśa, പോക്കറ്റ് pōkkaṟṟŭ, മടിശ്ശീല maṭiśśīla
pocket in Kannada
ಕಿಸೆ kise
pocket in Punjabi
ਜੇਬ jeb
pocket in Gujarati
ખિસ્સું khissũ
pocket in Odia
ପକେଟ୍ pakeṭ
pocket in Sinhala
පොකට් pokaṭ, සාක්කුව sākkuwa
pocket in Assamese
জেপ zep
pocket in Nepali
खल्ती khaltī
pocket in Pashto
جيب jayb, jeb
pocket in Tagalog
bulsa, lukbutan
pocket in Arabic
جَيْب jayb
pocket in Malay
kantung, kocek, poket, saku
pocket in Indonesian
saku, kocek
pocket in Thai
กระเป๋า grà-bpǎo
pocket in Vietnamese
túi, túi áo, túi quần
pocket in Myanmar
အိတ် it

Examples of pocket in a sentence

  • 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.2012, Simon Heffer, “In Fagin's Footsteps”, in Literary Review, section 403:
  • "The financial impact of the fuel duty cut on people's pockets will in fact be minimal, […]"2022 April 6, “Network News: Spring Statement: Sunak accused of making rail less competitive”, in RAIL, number 954, page 8:
  • 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.2012 December 26, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times...
  • 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.2014 June 20, Gregor Bozic, "Ramblings: Classic Pocket Passers versus Mobile Quarterbacks", Football Outsiders

All 40 example sentences with pocket

Synonyms of pocket

All synonyms of pocket

Forms of pocket

Noun
pluralpockets
Verb
third-person singular presentpockets
present participlepocketing
past participlepocketed
pastpocketed
present participle (rare)pocketting
past participle (rare)pocketted
past (rare)pocketted
Proper noun
pluralPockets

Past tense of pocket: pocketed

Plural of pocket: pockets

Origin of pocket

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 *puhô (“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.

Words formed from pocket

Phrases with pocket

136 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with pocket

Questions about pocket

What does pocket mean?
Pocket means a bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items.
What is pocket in Hindi?
Pocket in Hindi is जेब (jeb), चेद (ced). See Pocket meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pocket in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is pocket?
Pocket can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pocket?
Pocket is pronounced /ˈpɒk.ɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of pocket?
The plural of pocket is pockets.

Words near pocket in the dictionary

  1. pock-puddings
  2. pocked
  3. Pockels effect
  4. Pockels effects
  5. pocker
  6. pocket
  7. pocket battleship
  8. pocket battleships
  9. pocket beach
  10. pocket beaches
  11. pocket bike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pocket (page history and authors); Pocket (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pocket.ogg, en-au-pocket.ogg.

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