pottlepot

Noun

pottlepot (plural pottlepots)

1. (archaic) A pot or vessel containing two quarts (four pints), especially one used to hold alcohol.
   • ... and help her with the yeast , and filling the pottlepots of ale out of the tubs.1848, Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England: From the Norman Conquest, page 122
   • The largest, or “galonier,” twelve inches high, contains eight pints; the next or “Pottlepot,” about nine inches and a half high, holds four pints; another, eight inches and a half high, a quart; and the smallest, six inches in height, one pint.1876, William Chaffers, Marks and Monograms on Pottery & Porcelain of the Renaissance and Modern Periods, page 62
2. (archaic) An alcoholic, a drunkard.
   • It is true that he departed in quest of some Carpenter's Tools, which he declare would do the job quite as well; but, again to my good luck, the carpenter was as Rare a pottlepot as he, and they two took to boiling rum in a calabash and [drinking].1862, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, page 307
   • "Thou art no man (she saith) —thou art a Pottlepot!" "No man," I saith. "No man!" she saith. And "Pottlepot" thereto! "Thou sleepest like our dog all day; thou drink'st as fishes do."1894, Austin Dobson, At the Sign of the Lyre, page 210