Word.ws English Dictionary

potatoes and point

potatoes and point noun: a simple meal of potatoes only, or very little else.

Noun

potatoes and point (uncountable)

  1. (Ireland, humorous, obsolete) A simple meal of potatoes only, or very little else.
    • I well remember partaking, when a child four or five years old, with other little ones, of the dish referred to, viz., "potatoes-and-point,"—and no meat at all entered into its composition—which consisted of boiled potatoes mashed up with a little milk. […] Every now and then, on the word of...1880, Notes and Queries, page 443
    • Many readers will be reminded of the Irish dish "Potatoes and point," consisting of a large supply of potatoes and of a very limited supply of meat, bacon, or even fish.1883, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, volume 52, page 95

Origin of potatoes and point

* Relates to pointing with the finger (see 1880 citation), but sources differ: perhaps pointing to the empty space where the meat/fish would be. * Perhaps from point as the punctuation mark (period/full stop) marking termination.

Questions about potatoes and point

What does potatoes and point mean?
Potatoes and point means a simple meal of potatoes only, or very little else.
What part of speech is potatoes and point?
Potatoes and point is a noun.

Words near potatoes and point in the dictionary

  1. potato-quality
  2. potato-y
  3. potatoe
  4. potatoed
  5. potatoes
  6. potatoes and point
  7. potatoes boulangères
  8. potatoes in their jackets
  9. potatoes O'Brien
  10. potatoey
  11. potatohead

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: potatoes and point (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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