Word.ws English Dictionary

pottering

pottering is the present participle and gerund of potter.

Meaning of potter

Verb

potter (third-person singular simple present potters, present participle pottering, simple past and past participle pottered)

  1. (UK) To act in a vague or unmotivated way; to fuss about with unimportant things.
  2. (UK) To move slowly or aimlessly. (Often potter about, potter around.)
    • He’s so dreamy and absent-minded. He potters about the garden all the time.1923, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter II, in Leave It to Psmith
  3. (obsolete) To poke repeatedly.

See all 18 meanings of potter

Noun

pottering (plural potterings)

  1. The act of one who potters.
    • Had Feltram in some of his solitary wanderings and potterings lighted upon hidden treasure?

Forms of pottering

pluralpotterings

Phrases with pottering

Questions about pottering

What does pottering mean?
Pottering means the act of one who potters.
What is pottering the present participle and gerund of?
Pottering is the present participle and gerund of potter.
What part of speech is pottering?
Pottering is a noun.
What is the plural of pottering?
The plural of pottering is potterings.

Words near pottering in the dictionary

  1. Potterholic
  2. Potterholics
  3. Potterian
  4. Potteriana
  5. potteries
  6. pottering
  7. pottering about
  8. pottering around
  9. potteringly
  10. potterings
  11. Potterish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pottering (page history and authors); potter (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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Cite this entry: “pottering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pottering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.