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Noun
The tension between sharp contemporary verisimilitude and age-old romantic archetype helps explain why Bridget potters on while so many other ’90s heroines have fallen by the wayside.—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2025 The corpse was headed for potter’s field in late March when the funeral parlor received a strange call — a man offering to pay for the burial.—Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News, 22 Feb. 2025
Verb
As West Point residents were pottering about their errands, their lives were halted by a public health system that wanted to contain the disease.—Edna Bonhomme, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2025 Lucia pottered about, switching on a lamp, putting things away into cupboards, stacking the mugs into a corner.—Ruby Opalka, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2024 See All Example Sentences for potter
Word History
Etymology
Verb
probably frequentative of English dialect pote to poke
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
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