Word.ws English Dictionary

potboy

potboy noun: a boy employed in a plant nursery to tap clay pots with a stick for their ringing sound, indicating whether the plant required watering.

Noun

potboy (plural potboys)

  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 of potboy

pluralpotboys
alternative formpot boy
alternative formpot-boy

Origin of potboy

From pot + boy.

Questions about potboy

What does potboy mean?
Potboy means a boy employed in a plant nursery to tap clay pots with a stick for their ringing sound, indicating whether the plant required watering.
What part of speech is potboy?
Potboy is a noun.
What is the plural of potboy?
The plural of potboy is potboys.

Words near potboy in the dictionary

  1. potboiler
  2. potboilers
  3. potboiling
  4. potboils
  5. potbound
  6. potboy
  7. potboys
  8. potbrownie
  9. potbrownies
  10. POTC
  11. potcake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: potboy (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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