poach Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb hunt illegally
    • people are poaching elephants for their ivory
  2. verb cook in a simmering liquid
    • poached apricots

WordNet

Poach transitive verb
Etymology
F. pocher to place in a pocket, to poach eggs (the yolk of the egg being as it were pouched in the white), from poche pocket, pouch. See Pouch, v. &n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Poached ; present participle & verbal noun Poaching
Definitions
  1. To cook, as eggs, by breaking them into boiling water; also, to cook with butter after breaking in a vessel. Bacon.
  2. To rob of game; to pocket and convey away by stealth, as game; hence, to plunder. Garth.
Poach intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To steal or pocket game, or to carry it away privately, as in a bag; to kill or destroy game contrary to law, especially by night; to hunt or fish unlawfully; as, to poach for rabbits or for salmon.
Poach transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. OF. pocher to thrust or dig out with the fingers, to bruise (the eyes), F. pouce thumb, L. pollex, and also E. poach to cook eggs, to plunder, and poke to thrust against.
Definitions
  1. To stab; to pierce; to spear, \as fish. Obs. Carew.
  2. To force, drive, or plunge into anything. Obs.
    His horse poching one of his legs into some hollow ground. Sir W. Temple.
  3. To make soft or muddy by trampling Tennyson.
  4. To begin and not complete. Obs. Bacon.
Poach intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To become soft or muddy.
    Chalky and clay lands . . . chap in summer, and poach in winter. Mortimer.

Webster 1913