| 释义 |
potato, n.|pəʊˈteɪtəʊ|
Forms: α. 6 botata, 6–7 bat(t)ata: see batata. β. 6– potato, (6 potaton, 6–7 potade, potatus, 6–8 patata, 6–9 potatoe, 7 partato, potado, potata, pottato, puttato, 8– illit. pertater). γ. dial. and vulg.: see 2 d and tater, tatie, and tattie.
[ad. Sp. patata, a variant of batata, orig. the native name in Haitian in sense 1. So, in same sense, F. patate, obs. It. potata, Ger. potate.]
Sense 1 is the original; the plant to which it is applied was to Gerarde, in 1597, ‘the common Potatoes’; the plant in sense 2, on account of its general likeness to the other as producing esculent tubers, he called from its alleged source ‘Virginia Potatoes’, and (in his Catalogue of 1599) ‘Bastard Potatoes’; but when this came to be an important object of cultivation as a food plant, it became ‘the potato’ par excellence; the exotic plant and tuber originally so named being distinguished by some adjunct. In 17th c. instances of the word it is often difficult or impossible to determine which plant is meant.
1. A plant, Batatas edulis, family Convolvulaceæ, having tuberous roots, for which it is cultivated for food in most tropical and subtropical regions of the world; = batata. Its native region is unknown, but it appears to have been seen by the Spaniards first in the West Indies c 1500. Now distinguished as sweet potato or Spanish potato (see 3 a).
a. The tuber.
In the 16–17th c. supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities, to which there are frequent references.
[1555Eden Decades 82 (tr. Peter Martyr, 1511–16) In Hispaniola..they dygge also..certeyne rootes growynge of theim selues, whiche they caule Botatas [indigenæ batatas appellant]... They are also eaten rawe, and haue the taste of rawe chestnuttes, but are sumwhat sweeter. ]1565Hawkins Voy. Florida (Hakl. Soc.) 27 These potatoes be the most delicate rootes that may be eaten, and doe far exceede our passeneps or carets. 1577–1876 [see batata]. 1587Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 149 Of the potato and such venerous roots as are brought out of Spaine, Portingale, and the Indies. 1596Gd. Huswiues Jewell C v b, Pare your Potaton. 1598Shakes. Merry W. v. v. 21 Let the skie raine Potatoes. 1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. i, 'Tis your onely dish, aboue all your potato's or oyster-pies in the world. a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iv. (1704) 452/1 The Potatoes make a delicate kind of Drink, both pleasant and wholsome. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 183 Throughout the whole Island there growes a root they call Igname, or Patata, from whence the invention was brought to Spain. 1689H. Pitman Relation Gt. Suff., etc. 29 Of eatable Roots [in Providence Island, Bahamas] there is Partatoes, Yams, Edders, &c. 1750G. Hughes Barbadoes 228 The West Indian Potatoes have all a sweetish taste.
b. The plant. (See batata, quots. 1613–1866.)
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cccxxxiv. 780 Of Potatoes. This plant..is generally of vs called Potatus or Potatoes. It hath long rough flexible branches trailing vpon the ground, like vnto Pompions... Clusius calleth it Battata, Camotes, Amotes, and Ignanes: in English Potatoes, Potatus, and Potades. 1681C. Jeaffreson Let. fr. St. Kitts 10 Nov. in Yng. Squire 17th Cent. (1878) I. 280 It [hurricane] broke and twisted my sugar-canes, rooted up my Cassava, and washed the graine and new-planted puttatoes. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 203 There are Patata's of four or five several Colours. 1707,1775[see 3 a]. 1756P. Browne Jamaica 154 The Potatoe and Potatoe-slip. Both these plants are now cultivated all over America, and supply the Negroes and poorer sort of people with a great part of their food.
2. a. The plant Solanum tuberosum, a native of the Pacific slopes of South America, introduced into Europe late in the 16th century, and now widely cultivated for its farinaceous tubers: see b.
Described in 1553, under the name papas, in the Cronica de Peru of Piedro Cieza, cap. xl, ⁋5. Introduced into Spain, it is said, from Quito, soon after 1580, and thence, c 1585, into Italy; in 1587 grown at Mons in Hainault, whence in 1588 two tubers were obtained and grown by the botanist Clusius, Keeper of the Botanical Garden to Maximilian II; described by him as Papas Peruanum. Soon grown in other botanic gardens, as at Breslau in 1590. The plant may have been brought independently to England, where Gerarde had it growing in 1596; but he was in error in his statement that he obtained it from Virginia (whence the erroneous name Virginia Potatoes, long kept up by English writers); for the plant is not a native of Virginia, and was not cultivated there in 16th c. In 1693 its introduction into Ireland was attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh ‘after his return from Virginia’ (where he never was); but no contemporary statement associating Raleigh's name with the potato has been found. See Brushfield Raleghana ii. in Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. 1898, XXX. 158–197; B. Daydon Jackson in Gardeners' Chron. 1900, XXVII. 161, 178.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cccxxxv. 781 Of Potatoes of Virginia... Virginia Potatoes hath many hollowe flexible branches, trailing vppon the grounde, three square, vneuen, knotted or kneed in sundry places... The roote is thicke, fat, and tuberous; not much differing either in shape, colour or taste from the common Potatoes, sauing that the rootes hereof are..some of them round as a ball, some ouall or egge fashion..: which knobbie rootes are fastened vnto the stalkes with an infinite number of threddie strings. Ibid. 782 Because it hath not onely the shape and proportion of Potatoes, but also the pleasant taste and vertues of the same, we may call it in English Potatoes of America, or Virginia [ed. 1633 adds Bauhine hath referred it to the Nightshades, and calleth it Solanum tuberosum Esculentum]. 1599Gerarde Catalogus 15 Papus orbiculatus, Bastard Potatoes. P. Hispanorum, Spanish Potatoes. [Catal. 1596 C 2/1 had only the Latin names]. 1629Parkinson Paradisus 516 Potatoes of Virginia, which some foolishly call the Apples of youth..the flowers..somewhat like the flower of Tobacco for the forme..small round fruit, as bigge as a Damson or Bulleis, greene at the first,..like vnto Nightshade. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Potatoes, a sort of fruit, coming originally from the West Indies, but now common in English Gardens, whose Root is of great vertue, to comfort and strengthen the Body. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1708) 469 Potatoes are planted in several parts of our Country,..being easily encreased by cutting the Roots into several pieces, each piece growing as well as the whole Root. 1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xvi. (1794) 201 Potato is of this genus [Solanum], as you will be convinced, if you compare the structure of the flower with that of the other species. 1832Veg. Subst. Food 128 The potato is found wild in several parts of America,..among others in Chili and Peru. 1875W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 10 In 1728 Marshal Stair introduced the culture of the potatoe into Wigtownshire.
b. The tuber or underground stem of this plant, of roundish or oblong shape; now a well-known article of food in most temperate climates.
1663in Jrnl. Bk. of Royal Soc. (MS.) 25 Mar., A Proposition to plant Potatoes through all the parts of England..and the benefit therof in times of scarcity of Food..their usefulness for meat and bread. 1664J. Forster (title) Englands Happiness Increased, or a Sure and Easie Remedy against all succeeding Dear Years; by a Plantation of the Roots called Potatoes. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. Nov. 78 Take up your Potatos for winter spending, there will enough remain for stock, though never so exactly gather'd. a1687Petty Pol. Arith. ii. (1690) 42 Ireland being under peopled..the ground yielding excellent Roots (and particularly that bread-like Root Potatoes). 1693Jrnl. Bk. of Royal Soc. (MS.) 6 Dec., Dr. Sloan related that the Irish Potatoes were first brought from Virginia, and that they were the chief subsistence of the Spanish Slaves in the mines in Peru and elsewhere. 1693Ibid. 13 Dec., The President [Lord Southwell] related that his grandfather brought Potatoes into Ireland, who had them from Sir Walter Rauleigh after his return from Virginia. 1714Gay Sheph. Week Monday 84 Of Irish swains potatoe is the cheer. 1778G. White Nat. Hist. Selborne xxxvii, Potatoes have prevailed in this little district..within these twenty years only. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 18 The apple potatoe is liked best, because they last till the new ones come in. 1792― Trav. France 350 As to potatoes, it would be idle to consider them in the same view as an article of human food, which ninety-nine hundredths of the human species will not touch. 1820Shelley Œd. Tyr. i. 24 Ye who grub With filthy snouts my red potatoes up. 1832Veg. Subst. Food 151 Potatoes..yield a spirit of a very pure quality... They are..cheaper..than barley from which to extract alcohol. 1869Ruskin Q. of Air §76 In the potato, we have the scarcely innocent underground stem of one of a tribe set aside for evil. 1903Joyce Soc. Hist. Anc. Irel. II. 497 In my grandfather's house..a big dish of laughing potatoes was always laid aside for wandering beggars.
c. potatoes and point: see point n.1 C. 7.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 75 The potatoes and point of an Irish peasant. 1831,1897[see point n.1 C. 7].
d. Anglo-Irish pratie, etc.
[Pratie is characteristic Anglo-Irish; the Irish name is, in Munster, práta, in Meath, préata, pl. prat-, preataidhe.] In quot. 1966 the use is fig.]
γ1781W. Dyott Diary 8 Sept. (1907) I. 5 In short, I think them [sc. the Irish recruits] calculated merely to eat potatoes, or ‘pratys’, as they call them. 1826‘N. Nondescript’ The — 15 Apr. 56 ‘I was just thinking,’ said he in a whimpering tone, ‘what we poor Irish would do, if we hadn't paraties.’ 1829J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. (1855) II. 288 Englishmen feeding on roast-beef..or Irishmen on ‘wetuns’ and ‘praes’. 1830Constellation II. 1/1 She took my advice, and doubling herself up in the blanket, was asleep before your Honour'd say praties. 1833Marryat P. Simple xii, You must do something to get your own dinner; there's not praties enow for the whole of ye. 1869M. Arnold Cult. & An. (1882) 74 When all the praties were black in Ireland, why didn't the priests say the hocus-pocus over them? 1884Cudworth Yorksh. Dial. Sketches 121 (E.D.D.) Peeling sum porates. 1927in C. Sandburg Amer. Songbag 463 O, I met her in the mornin' And I'll have yez all to know That I met her in the garden Where the praties grow. 1932–53Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs) Ser. i. 21 When evening sets in Paddy puts on the pot, To boil the dear praties and serve them up hot. 1949C. Graves Ireland Revisited vii. 82 Nobody uses the word ‘begorrah,’ and a potato is a ‘spud’ not a ‘praty’. 1966Listener 12 May 687/1 A sentimental domestic melodrama—what Irish audiences..call a ‘pratie’, or potato. 1972Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 12 Mar. 8/1 We call them ‘spuds’. The Irish affectionately call them ‘praties’ and they sometimes call mashed potatoes ‘poundies’. 1973Times 29 Aug. 7/6 Do you fancy some German sausage in the garden where the praties grow?
3. With distinctive words.
a. Carolina potato, Spanish potato, sweet potato = sense 1.
b. Chilian p., Irish p. (now U.S.), white p. (U.S.) = sense 2.
c. Virginia (-an) potato, (a) = sense 2; (b) = sense 1.
a.1599[see 2]. 1629Parkinson Paradisus 517 Battatas Hispanorum, Spanish Potatoes. Ibid. 518 The Spanish Potato's are roasted vnder the embers..put into sacke with a little sugar, or without, and is delicate to be eaten. 1634J. Taylor (Water P.) Gt. Eater Kent 12 The Spanish potato he holds as a bable. 1707Sloane Jamaica I. Pref., The Spanish Patata, eaten commonly in Jamaica, is a true Convolvulus. 1775Romans Florida 84 They cultivate..the esculent Convolvulus, (vulgo) sweet potatoes. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Voy. Eng. Wks. (Bohn) II. 12 Shaped like a Carolina potato. 1884Century Mag. Jan. 442/1 The sweet potato..is yet known in the market as the ‘Carolina’.
b.1664J. Forster Eng. Happiness Incr. 2 The fourth sort..are the Irish Potatoes, being little different from those of Virginia, save only in the Colour of the Flower and time of flowering. 1693[see 2 b]. 1819Warden United States II. 213 Of esculent plants there are, in the Eastern parts, the sweet potatoe, red and white; the common, or Irish potatoe, which is in general use. 1870Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 4 The Chilian potato has provided food for many millions of people. 1901Boston Morn. Jrnl. 8/1 Irish potatoes..are called Irish from the Irish, who came in 1719, settled Londonderry, N.H., and were required to pay quit rent to the amount of a peck of potatoes... The white potato, called Irish,..did not become general until after 1800.
c. (a)1597[see 2 a]. 1629Parkinson Paradisus 517 (No.) 3 Papas seu Battatas Virginianorum, Virginia Potatoes. Ibid. 518 The Virginia Potato's being dressed after all these waies..maketh almost as delicate meate as the former. 1715J. Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 272 Virginia Potatoes... We are obliged to..Caspar Bauhine for a most accurate Figure..of this..Root... It was first cultivated in Ireland, and now about London, and in many Counties of Great Britain.
(b)1731Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina (1754) II. 60 The Virginian Potato. Convolvulus radice tuberosa esculenta. 1736Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 258 The Virginian Potato. The Roots of these Plants are the principal Subsistance of the greater Part of Africa, and the southern Parts of Asia, as well as most of the People, both black and white, in the Colonies in America.
4. Applied, with defining word, to various plants having tubers or tuberous roots, mostly edible.
Canada potato, potato of Canada, Jerusalem Artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus; Cree potato (U.S.), Indian or Prairie Turnip, Psoralea esculenta, family Leguminosæ; hog's potato, the Death's Quamash of California, Zygadenus venenosus, family Melanthaceæ (Miller Plant-names); Indian potato, (a) the genus Dioscorea or yams; (b) the American ground-nut, Apios tuberosa; (c) the American genus Calochortus, family Liliaceæ; Jerusalem potato (dial.), the same as Jerusalem Artichoke; native potato, of N.S. Wales, Marsdenia viridiflora (Miller Plant-names); of Tasmania, an orchid, Gastrodia sesamoides; seaside potato, Ipomæa biloba (Pes-capræ), family Convolvulaceæ, a tropical creeping shore-plant of both hemispheres; Telinga potato, Amorphophallus campanulatus, family Araceæ, cultivated in India for its esculent tubers; wild potato, (a) Convolvulus panduratus; (b) of Jamaica, Ipomæa fastigiata.
1629Parkinson Paradisus 517 (No.) 4 Battatas de Canada, Potatoes of *Canada, or Artichokes of Ierusalem. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Jerusalem Artichokes, a Plant so called, but more truly Battatas [1706 (ed. Kersey), Potatoes] of Canada, because they came from Canada. 1866Treas. Bot., Potato, Canada, Helianthus tuberosus.
1884Miller Plant-n., Potato, *Hog's, Zygadenus venenosus.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 323 Potatoe, *Indian, Dioscorea.
1834Ross Van Diemen's Land Ann. 131 [It] produces bulb-tubers growing one out of another, of the size, and nearly the form, of kidney potatoes... These roots are roasted and eaten by the aborigines; in taste they resemble beet-root, and are sometimes called in the colony *native potatoes. 1857F. R. Nixon Cruise of Beacon 27 Gastrodia sesamoides, the native potato, so called by the colonists.
5. a. In various colloq. phrases, a type of what is insignificant or of little value; esp. in small potatoes (orig. U.S.), ‘no great things’, said also of persons; also in sing. and in phr. small potatoes and few in a (or the) hill. Also attrib. = petty, mean, insignificant. (to drop something) like a hot potato: see hot a. 12 a.
1757Smollett Reprisal i. ii, I don't value Monsieur de Champignon a rotten potatoe. 1797Coleridge Lett. I. 224 The London literati appear to me to be very much like little potatoes, that is no great things. 1823Byron Juan vii. iv, Who knew this life was not worth a potato. 1836D. Crockett Exploits & Adventures Texas ii. 25 This is what I call small potatoes and few of a hill. 1839Boston (Mass.) Morning Post 23 July 1/1 The Conservatives in Maine have held a convention and nominated F. O. J. Smith, for Governor. S.P. (small potatos). 1846New York Herald 13 Dec. (Bartlett), Small potato politicians and pettifogging lawyers. 1855Haliburton Nat. & Hum. Nat. I. 63 It's small potatoes for a man-of-war to be hunting poor game like us. 1864Sala in Daily Tel. 20 July, Bananas and oranges are reckoned ‘very small potatoes’ indeed; you may have them for the asking. 1880[see ham-fatter s.v. ham n.1 3]. 1885Harper's Mag. Mar. 647/1 The Fourth Estate..thinks no small potatoes of itself. 1886Galaxy 1 Oct. 272 Insignificant people are ‘small potatoes, and few in a hill’. 1914‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions xiii. 101 In the beginning he was an Assistant Clerk—which is a very small potato indeed. 1923Conrad Rover x. 160 Then indeed that corvette, the big factor of everyday life on that stretch of coast, would become very small potatoes indeed. 1926M. J. Atkinson in J. F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 80 He's a mighty small potato in my estimation. He's mighty small potatoes and few in a hill. 1927H. T. Lowe-Porter tr. Mann's Magic Mountain II. vii. 787 If some first-class excitement doesn't come along every day, you pull a face as though you were saying: ‘H'm, small potatoes and few in the hill!’. 1962A. Buchwald How much is that in Dollars? 122 Mary Soo, by tradition but not contract, has the garbage concession of all United States Navy ships entering Hong Kong, which out here is no small potatoes. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 7/6 When the conference gets around to ‘other matters’ on Wednesday, the current dispute over medicare should seem like small potatoes. 1973H. Nielsen Severed Key iv. 49 ‘Morry Sacks is going to tell the law we found a million dollars on the beach?’ ‘No! Morry is too small potatoes.’ 1974Publishers Weekly 26 Aug. 300/2 A milieu where the crime is petty and municipal corruption small potatoes. 1976Gramophone July 153/3 Serenus is small potatoes by CBS or RCA standards but its albums are tastefully produced and carefully annotated.
b. Humorously applied to a person.
1815Byron Let. to Moore 8 Mar., How could you be such a potato? 1845Punch VIII. 184/1 That fire-eating Milesian, that very hot potato, Mr. H. Grattan. 1868Brierley Red Windows Hall ii. 16 ‘You are Sam o' Ducky's’..‘Th' same owd porrito’, said Sam.
c. the potato: the (very, real, or proper) thing, what is correct or excellent. Also, (the) clean potato: a person or thing whose character or excellence is beyond reproach. Hence the phr. not (quite) the clean potato and vars., not completely sound or reliable; not (quite) the right or real thing. slang. Cf. cheese n.2
1822Blackw. Mag. XI. 370 The Bishop's first two volumes are not quite the potato. 1837H. Ainsworth Rookwood Pref. 31 Larry is quite ‘the potato’. 1880R. M. Jephson Pink Wedding xxiv, I am convinced he is a first-rate one—quite the clean potato, in fact. 1881G. H. Gibson in Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Mar. 8 You weren't quite the cleanly potato, Sam Holt. 1890‘ R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer III. xxvii. 104 ‘Well,’ said Mr. Cottonbush,..‘it ain't quite the clean potato, of course [sc. to steal a neighbour's grass]; but if your sheep's dying at home, what can you do?’ 1913Galsworthy Dark Flower ii. vii. 137 A suspicion he had always entertained, that Cramier was not by breeding ‘quite the clean potato’. 1921K. S. Prichard Black Opal xvi. 148, I ain't always been what you might call the clean potato. 1929J. Masefield Hawbucks 165 We'll shake hands, clean potato, and be good friends. 1931M. Franklin Back to Bool Bool 233 She was only the great-granddaughter of old Larry Healey of Little River, none so clean a potato, if rumour was correct. 1933G. Heyer Why shoot a Butler? vi. 86 Not strictly the clean potato, is it?.. Guest in the man's house, you know. The Public School Spirit, and Playing for the Side, and all that wash. 1939― No Wind of Blame iv. 80 It isn't at all the clean potato. In fact, it's very dishonourable. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 56 A clean potato, a free or unconvicted person, one with unblemished character. 1962T. Ronan Deep of Sky 42 Some of the grand old pioneers and land-takers of history were not quite the clean potato.
d. A large or conspicuous hole in a sock or stocking through which the flesh shows.
1885Eng. Ilustr. Mag. June 616/1 The gladiators wore pasteboard helmets..and fleshings for legs and arms, with—what are vulgarly termed ‘potatoes’, that is, holes in the fleshings perceptible in many places. 1886H. Baumann Londinismen 144/1 Potatoes, grosse Löcher in den Strümpfen. 1902Farmer & Henley Slang V. 270/1 Potato,..used esp. for a heel through an undarned sock or stocking. 1949D. M. Davin Roads from Home iii. iv. 241 It was a mystery the way that Paddy went through his stockings... A great big potato staring out over the heel. 1973Country Gentlemen's Estate Mag. Mar. 156/1 Gumboots..will hole a ‘potato’ like a cannon-ball in the heels of a new pair of socks in an afternoon.
e. In pl. U.S. slang. Money. Occas. in more specific use, dollars (‘pounds’ in quot. 1939).
1931D. Runyon in Collier's 4 Nov. 8/2 ‘Listen, Sam,’ I say, ‘you have seven duckets, and we are only six, and here is a little doll who is stood up by her guy, and has no ducket, and no potatoes to buy one with, so what about taking her with us?’ 1932― in Collier's 26 Mar. 7/4 Many citizens are figuring that maybe he suddenly discovers all his potatoes are counterfeit, because nobody can think of anything that will worry Sorrowful except money. 1933Sun (Baltimore) 15 Sept. 1/2 Nobody gives fifteen thousand ‘potatoes’ to a party committee without wanting something. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 90/2 Potatoes, money. 1939Wodehouse Uncle Fred in Springtime i. 9 Was it conceivable..that any man, even to oblige a future brother-in-law, would cough up the colossal sum of two hundred potatoes? 1976National Observer (U.S.) 8 May 14/2 Usually he [sc. a horse] runs with a price tag of about $3,500. With those kind of potatoes, it can be hard to get respect.
f. Austral. slang. Also in spelling potater. [Shortening of potato peeler, rhyming slang for ] A girl, a woman.
1957D. Niland Call me when Cross turns Over ii. 69 Snow told him not to be a mug, the sheila had him in her sights because she thought he was a bit of all right. That would be the day, Locky retorted, when some bloody potater..had him stringing along with her. 1970G. Greer Female Eunuch 266 Terms..often extended to the female herself. Who likes to be called..a potato? 1970Private Eye 2 Jan. 12 He's been endeavouring to commit intimacy with your potato. 1971Ibid. 2 July 16 As for this potato I must guide her footsteps back into the paths of righteousness.
6. attrib. and Comb. (almost all in sense 2);
a. simple attrib., as potato-bing (bing n.1), potato-bowl, potato-crop, potato-field, potato-fork, potato-garden, potato-graip, potato-ground, potato-harvest, potato-house, potato-land, potato-leaf, potato-merchant, potato-plant, potato-riddle, potato-sack, potato-shoot, potato-stem, potato-tuber; in names of things made of or from potatoes, or of which the principal ingredient is the potato, as potato-brandy, potato-croquette, potato-flour, potato-fritter, potato-ivory, potato-pasty, potato-pudding, potato-soup, potato-starch, potato-sugar, potato-yeast.
b. objective and obj. gen., as potato-assorter, potato-chipper, potato-cutter, potato-digger, potato-digging, potato-gatherer, potato-grower, potato-lifter, potato-masher, potato-peeler, potato-peeling, potato-picker, potato-picking, potato-planter, potato-planting, potato-raiser, potato-roaster, potato-separator, potato-smasher, potato-washer (applied to persons and to tools).
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Potato-assorter, a rolling screen with open meshes to allow small potatoes to be sorted from the larger merchantable ones.
1786Burns Brigs of Ayr 27 *Potatoe-bings are snugged up frae skaith.
1892E. Rowe Chip-carving (1895) 26 Numerous objects..which may thus be decorated at a small cost,..book-covers, blotters, bread-platters, *potato-bowls,..&c.
1840Hood Up Rhine 197 Mr. Kraus..found their *potato-brandy so poisonous.
1664J. Forster Eng. Happiness Incr. 9 How to make *Potato Cheescakes.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 436/1 *Potato Chipper, can be used as a..chopper for potatoes. 1951Catal. of Exhibits, South Bank Exhib., Festival of Britain 52/1 Potato chipper; Thos. A. Nutbrown Ltd., Walker Street, Blackpool, Lancs. 1977Western Mail (Cardiff) 5 Mar. 12/2 (Advt.), Hobart Potato Chipper, 40lb. per minute. Reconditioned.
1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 249 When the *potatoe-crop is removed. Note, Potato-crop is an absurd expression, but we must use it for want of one which is more proper. 1845Florist's Jrnl. 245 The disease unfortunately so very general in the potato crop.
1876M. N. F. Henderson Pract. Cooking 194 *Potato Croquettes. Add to four or five mashed potatoes..the beaten yolk of one egg. 1942C. Spry Come into Garden, Cook iv. 38 The best croquettes in the world, Potato Croquettes.
1845Quincy (Illinois) Whig 18 Dec. 2/5 A new *potatoe digger was recently exhibited in operation at Salem, West Jersey. 1858J. Brown Let. 13 May (1912) 160 And is the delightfullest of potato-diggers already digging? 1945Hardin (Montana) Tribune-Herald 15 Feb. 2/4, I will sell at public auction..1 potato digger.
a1887Jefferies in Besant Eulogy v. (1888) 136 Let him pass to his *potato-digging.
1822J. Wilson Scot. Life, Moss-side 36 The *potatoe-field beyond the brae.
1830Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) II. 355/2 A machine for grinding *Potato-flour. 1839Mag. Dom. Econ. IV. 88 The bread made of potato flour..is nutritious, wholesome, and delicate. 1906U. Sinclair Jungle xi. 139 Potato-flour is the waste of potato after the starch and alcohol have been extracted; it has no more food value than so much wood. 1911Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 4 Apr. 3/1 (Advt.), Potato Flour, Health Brand, packet 20c.
1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery xix. 417 *Potato fritters. (Entremets.) See directions for potato puddings. The same mixture dropped in fritters into boiling butter, and fried until firm on both sides will be found very good. 1966P. V. Price France 308 Small sweetened potato fritters.
1778Pennant Tour Wales (1883) I. 22 Every Cottager has his *potatoe garden..a conveniency unknown fifty years ago.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 1125 There are two modes of lifting potatoes, namely, with the plough, and with the *potato-graip.
1753W. Stewart in Scots Mag. Mar. 134/1 The pannel was walking from his *potatoe-ground. 1837Flemish Husb. 47 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, A practice of sowing hemp in a border all round a garden or potato-ground.
1808E. Weeton Let. 1 Apr. (1969) I. 78 An uncommonly plentiful *potatoe harvest. 1979Country Life 2 May 1375 Mr Hurd works on the early potato harvest.
1791W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina 192 The lowest or ground part is a *potatoe house. 1861C. M. Yonge Stokesley Secret vi. 89 There was a bonfire by the potato-house. 1921Proc. 3rd National Country Life Conf. 1920 (U.S.) 155 Potato houses..are isolated and located with special reference to the good of the products involved. 1970S. Trueman Intimate Hist. New Brunswick iii. 56 The ‘potato houses’ looking like dwellings that have sunk so deep into the ground that they now consist mainly of high-peaked roofs.
1883Cassell's Fam. Mag. Aug. 574/2 *Potato-ivory..of creamy whiteness..is now made from good potatoes washed in dilute sulphuric acid, then boiled in the same solution until they become solid and dense.
1780A. Young Tour in Ireland i. 344 Plough the *potatoe land once or twice for barley. 1855Trans. Amer. Inst. City of N.Y. 1854 168 Salt..will kill grubs, and may be used to advantage on potato land. 1965K. H. Connell in Glass & Eversley Population in Hist. xvii. 428 The practice of letting farms by auction in a country [sc. Ireland] where land was almost the only resource encouraged tenants to outbid one another in the tribute they offered to acquire the right to potato-land.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Potato-lifter, a prong; also a kind of digging machine.
1664J. Forster Eng. Happiness Incr. 6 You must take as much Wheat or Barley Flower as your half Bushel of *Potato Meal weighs.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Potato-pasty, a pasty made of potatoes and flour.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 436/1 The Peerless *Potato Peeler. This is an entirely new and novel article for peeling and slicing potatoes. 1951Good Housek. Home Encycl. 610/1 Potatoes should be peeled..with either a special potato peeler or a sharp, short⁓bladed knife. 1961Which? Mar. 61 (heading) Potato peelers.
1896Daily News 7 Apr. 3/7 Yesterday's exhibition was enlivened by competitions in *potato-peeling, boot-blacking, cookery, and recitation. 1961Which? 61/1 In this report, CA discusses five potato peeling devices on the market when our tests began. 1975L. Gillen Return to Deepwater x. 178 She impatiently brushed them [sc. tears] away with the back of one hand before resuming her potato-peeling.
1891Pall Mall G. 29 Oct. 6/3 In the Long Sutton District..the *potato-pickers have struck work for an increase of pay.
1772Panton in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 180 The *potatoe plant has not been cultivated in any great quantities here [Anglesey] until of late years. 1857Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) 43 The subterranean growth of a Potato-plant.
1885A. Edwardes Girton Girl III. xiii. 221 The Seigneur..taking part in his *potato-planting and his vraic harvest. 1951R. Firth Elem. Social Organiz. iv. 142 To revert to the Irish peasantry..—there is a form of non-monetary co-operation..in tasks such as..potato-planting.
1766Museum Rust. VI. 396 Mashed with a trencher; as for a *potatoe pudding.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 1125 The *potato-riddle is made of wire.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Potato-roaster, a tin machine carried about by an itinerant vender, who sells hot baked potatoes.
1859G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 40 There are tall *potato-sacks, propped up in dark corners. 1939F. Thompson Lark Rise i. 4 A superannuated potato-sack thrown down by way of hearthrug. 1979Guardian 28 Feb. 13/3 Ladies..manage to knit passable potato sacks to cover their nether limbs.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Potato-separator, an implement used for the purpose of sorting the tubers to size.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 690 The *potato-shoots..are fed by the matter lodged in the tuber from which the shoots proceed.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Potato-smasher, a cook's wooden utensil for mashing potatoes for the table.
1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery i. 20 *Potato soup. Mash to a smooth paste three pounds of good mealy potatoes..; mix with them..two quarts of boiling broth,..add pepper and salt. 1861Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 76 Potato soup... When the potatoes are boiled, mash them smoothly..and gradually put them to the boiling stock [etc.]. 1906Macm. Mag. July 675 Potato-soup,..pea-soup, or even chestnut-soup for the fruitarian. 1960Good Housek. Cookery Bk. (rev. ed.) 72/2 Potato soup... Peel and slice the potatoes and chop the onion and celery.
1831Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) IV. 300/1 We have been assured, that..Indian arrowroot is nothing else than *potato starch mixed with a little gum tragacanth. 1854Pereira's Polarized Light (ed. 2) 154 In all the starches which I have yet examined, viz., tous les mois, potato-starch, West Indian arrow-root, sago-meal [etc.].
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 1127 The reason why the *potato-stems are thus removed.
1882Ogilvie (Annandale), *Potato-sugar.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 780 The Heart and Dart moth..also attack the *potato-tuber.
1800Naval Chron. III. 364 Method of making *potatoe yeast.
7. Special combinations: potato-apple, the small fruit or berry of the potato-plant; potato-ball, (a) = potato-apple (Funk 1895); (b) pl., in Cookery, mashed potatoes made into balls with milk and butter, and fried; also in sing. and attrib.; potato-bean: see quot.; potato-beetle1, a wooden beetle or pestle for mashing potatoes; potato-beetle2, (a) the Colorado beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, a brown beetle with black spots and stripes which attacks the leaves of the potato and related plants; (b) the Three-lined Leaf Beetle, Lema trilineata, or its larva (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); potato blight = potato disease; potato-bogle Sc., a scarecrow in a potato-field; potato-box, slang, the mouth: cf. potato-jaw, -trap; potato bread, a bread made partly of the prepared flour of potatoes; potato-bug (a) = potato-fly; (b) = potato-beetle2; potato-cake, a small cake made of potatoes and flour; potato chip, (a) = chip n.1 2 b; (b) U.S. = potato crisp (see also quot. 1975); also (usu. with hyphen) attrib.; potato clay, a variety of clay used by the Hopi Indians in making pigments; potato creeper = potato vine (b); potato crisp (see crisp n. 7); potato curl, a disease of potatoes in which the leaves and young stems curl and wither, caused by a fungus, Verticillium atroalbum: see curl n. 4; potato disease, a very destructive disease of potatoes, caused by a parasitic fungus, Phytophthora infestans, which attacks the leaves, stems, and tubers; also called potato blight, murrain, rot; potato dumpling, a dumpling whose ingredients include sieved cooked potatoes; potato-eater, a derogatory nickname usu. applied to an Irishman (see also quot. 1871); potato-eel, a minute threadworm found in potatoes (Cent. Dict. 1890); potato-eye, a bud of the potato-tuber: see eye n.1 10 a; potato failure = potato famine; potato famine, a dearth of potatoes caused by crop failure; spec. (usu. with capital initials) that which occurred in Ireland in 1846–7; potato fern, an Australian fern (Marattia fraxinea), also called horseshoe fern, a large part of which is edible; † potato finger, fig., with reference to the supposed aphrodisiac quality of the sweet potato; potato flake (usu. in pl.), (see quot. 1955); potato-fly, one of the various blister beetles of the genus Epicauta, which are injurious to potato-plants in U.S. and Canada (Mayne 1858); potato fungus: see potato disease; potato grant: see quot.; potato-headed a., thick-headed, dull, stupid; potato hook, an implement with bent tines for digging up potatoes (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); potato-jaw, slang, the mouth; potato latke [latke], a pancake made with grated potato; potato-loaf, a loaf of potato-bread; potato masher, a device consisting of a set of wires or a perforated flat plate (formerly, a solid wooden cylinder) attached to a handle, for mashing potatoes; also transf., (a) in full potato-masher grenade, a type of hand grenade whose shape resembles that of a potato masher; (b) (see quot. 1945); potato-mill, a mill for grinding potatoes to flour; potato moth Austral. = potato tuber moth; potato mould, potato murrain = potato disease; potato-mouth v. trans., to mutter; also potato-mouthed a. = mealy-mouthed a.; potato-nose, a nose like a potato, a bottle-nose; potato oat, a variety of the oat; potato oil, an amyl alcohol derived from potato spirit; potato onion, a variety of the common onion, Allium cepa, in which new bulbs are produced at the base; potato pancake, a pancake in which sieved mashed potato is the basic ingredient; also, = potato latke; potato patch, a plot of ground on which potatoes are grown; potato peelings, strips of the peeled skin of potatoes; potato pen, a compartment on a ship's deck for keeping vegetables fresh during a voyage (Cent. Dict. 1890); potato pie, (a) a pie made with potatoes, containing meat, onions, etc.; (b) = potato pit; potato pit, a shallow pit, usually covered with a mound of straw and earth, in which potatoes are stored in winter; potato puff, a kind of potato crisp in the form of a puff (see puff n. 5); potato race, a race or competitive game decided by the skill and speed with which potatoes are picked up, passed on, etc.; potato rot = potato disease; potato salad, pieces of cold cooked potato mixed with salad dressing and other ingredients; potato scab, a brown patch on the skin of the potato, caused by a fungus, or by some irritant substance in the soil (Ogilvie 1882); potato scone, a scone made with sieved cooked potatoes; potato-scoop, (a) a tool for cutting pieces of potatoes with ‘eyes’, suitable for planting; (b) a shovel for lifting potatoes, grated to allow loose earth to fall through (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); potato set = set n. 23 b; potato-shop, a shop where fried or chip potatoes are sold; potato-sick a., of land, exhausted by successive crops of potatoes; potato-spirit, alcohol distilled from potatoes; also called potato brandy or whisky; potato-spraying , the spraying of potato plants with some preventive against disease or insects; potato-stalk weevil, potato weevil: see quot.; potato stick, a small crisp potato chip; potato-stone: see quot. 1859; potato straw, a very thin stick of potato, fried until crisp; potato-trap, slang, the mouth; potato-tree, a small tree, Solanum crispum; potato tuber moth, the moth whose larva is the potato tuber-worm; potato tuberworm U.S., the pinkish-white caterpillar of the moth Gnorimoschema operculella; potato-vine, (a) a potato plant, Solanum tuberosum; (b) one of several South or Central American climbing plants, esp. Solanum jasminoides or S. wendlandii, bearing blue or white flowers; potato-woman, a woman employed in gathering potatoes in the field; potato worm (U.S.), = potato tuberworm.
1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. p. v, We are ourselves curious in the fabrication of a salad,..but have never yet screwed up our courage to plunge a green *potato-apple into the bowl. 1878tr. von Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVII. 690 A girl of fourteen died from eating green potato-apples.
1823T. B. Hazard Diary 16 May (1930) 596/1 Planted a *Potatoe Ball. 1824M. Randolph Virginia House-Wife 120 Potato Balls. Mix mashed potatoes with the yelk of an egg, roll them into balls, [etc.]. 1845E. Acton Mod. Cooking (ed. 2) xv. 304 English potato balls. 1846Jewish Manual, or Pract. Information Jewish & Mod. Cookery v. 91 Potatoe balls are mashed potatoes formed into balls glazed with the yolk of egg, and browned with a salamander. 1850Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. 1849 (U.S.) 198 In 1847, he planted a single potato-ball or apple; only one seed grew. 1877Rep. Vermont Board Agric. IV. 33 Nature can make potato balls, but she couldn't make the Early Rose. 1912M. B. Brown Just Use-it-Up vi. 140 Potato balls. 1948Good Housek. Cookery Bk. ii. 289 Scoop out the potato balls with a Parisian potato cutter. 1963R. Carrier Great Dishes of World 213/2 Roll potato balls in flour and then in beaten egg. 1969E. H. Pinto Treen 141 The hardwood handle with, at each end, a steel bowl with a hole in the base..is a potato ball maker, probably 18th-century.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 628 The dark brown-coloured excrescence that grows to the size of a large horse-bean on the haulm or straw of the potatoe..termed in some places the *potatoe bean.
1821Galt Ayrsh. Legatees Let. xxvi. (1850) 261 A *potatoe-beetle is not to be had within the four walls of London.
1866Pract. Entomologist I. 105/2 One day last week a gentleman left at our office a stalk from a potato hill, which was literally covered with the larva of the new potato beetle. 1868Amer. Entomologist I. 44/1 It might perhaps be desirable..to get people to call it [sc. the Colorado potato-bug] a ‘potato-beetle’. 1876Times 29 Aug. 6/5 The fact of its surviving in a letter posted at Listowel, Ontario, and delivered at Stranraer, Wigtonshire, N.B., shows that the potato beetle possesses great powers of endurance. 1906J. W. Folsom Entomol. xii. 382 From Colorado the well⁓known potato beetle..has worked eastward since 1840. 1931Z. P. Metcalf Text-bk. Econ. Zool. viii. 259 The Colorado potato beetle..often completely destroys whole fields of unsprayed potatoes. 1972L. E. Chadwick tr. Linsenmaier's Insects of World 165/2 The Colorado potato beetle..was imported accidentally into Europe from America.
1879H. George Progr. & Pov. ii. ii. (1881) 110 When the *potato blight came, they died by thousands.
1818Scott Rob Roy xxxi, To be hung up between heaven and earth, like an auld *potato-bogle. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped xxvi, As if ye had stolen the coat from a potato-bogle.
1742W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Sept. xxv. 119 *Potatoe Bread. This Root has often been employed, like the Turnep, towards making Loaves of Bread in the scarce Times of Corn. 1766Museum Rust. VI. 396 He told me, it was potatoe bread. 1831Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) IV. 299/2 Potato bread. 1915Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 661/2 There is a rather large group of words that have come at us with a rush, and cannot be classified,..that fine phrase of Mr. Lloyd George's, ‘the potato-bread spirit’. c1950Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. xxx. 695 Potato bread.—The adhesive tendency of the flour of the potato prevents it being baked or kneaded without being mixed with wheaten flour or meal.
1799E. Drinker Jrnl. 2 Sept. (1889) 347 They call them [sc. a species of Cantharides] here..the *Potato-Bug, being numerous on the potato tops. 1838Hesperian (Columbus, Ohio) I. 42/1 This company, formed for the praiseworthy purpose of encouraging the growth of potatoe-bugs, and manufacturing potato-bug oil. 1864Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1863 798 Some have been discouraged from planting potatoes, the ravages of this potato-bug have been so great. 1865Pract. Entomologist I. 3/1 The new Potato Bug is not what naturalists call a Bug, but a true Beetle. 1868Rep. U.S. Commiss. Agric. 10 The ravages..of the potato-bug. 1907L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Agric. II. 524/1 The old-fashioned potato bug or blister-beetle..is combated in the same way as the Colorado potato-beetle. It is now rarely seen. 1908Springfield (Mass.) Republ. 2 Sept. 14/6 Potato bugs on the rails..stalled eight trolly cars. 1949N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 5 June 14/2 It was settled that I should receive 1 cent per hundred for picking potato bugs. 1979R. Thomas Eighth Dwarf xxi. 210 The U.S. Constabulary..were swarming over the Opel plant..like so many potato bugs.
1747H. Glasse Art of Cookery ix. 98 *Potatoe-Cakes. Take Potatoes boil them..mix them with Yolks of Eggs [etc.]. 1824E. Weeton Jrnl. (1969) I. 33 Often I have..been obliged to live on potatoes and potatoe cakes for weeks. 1848Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton II. xviii. 261 The potatoe-cakes she had made for her son's tea. 1884Chesh. Gloss., Potato cake,..a tea cake made of mashed potatoes and flour in equal parts. 1893Couch Delect. Duchy 26 Drinking cider and eating potato-cake.
1878Amer. Home Cook Bk. 67 Put around *potato chips prepared as follows. 1886[see chip n.1 2 b]. 1934Webster, Potato chips, thin slices of raw potato fried crisp in deep fat. 1955Sci. News Let. 5 Mar. 153/3 Scientists at the Eastern Laboratory are also responsible for the potato-chip bar developed primarily as a ‘high-calorie, high-density military ration with taste appeal’. The potato-chip bar takes up only one twentieth the space needed for an equivalent amount of ordinary potato chips. 1972C. Weston Poor, Poor Ophelia (1973) vi. 29 Two barefoot hippies were sharing a bag of potato chips. 1975N.Y. Times 30 Nov. iii. 1/2 The F.D.A. gave Procter & Gamble permission to go ahead with the use of the words ‘potato chips’ on its product... Its potatoes are dehydrated, then turned into a mush and pressed and fried. Ibid. 9 Their development went a long way toward solving a basic potato-chip problem... The natural chips are easily broken.
1898Internat. Folk-Lore Congr. World's Columbian Exposition 1893 I. 264 The corn having boiled about three-quarters of an hour, the pot is taken from the fire and its content poured upon the sieve, through which the purple-stained boiling water is strained upon the sumac berries. Some of the talc-like substance called *potato-clay is then produced, and the operator puts a piece about the size of a walnut in his mouth, chewing it a little to soften it.
1925H. F. Macmillan Trop. Gardening & Planting (ed. 3) 129 (caption) Solanum wendlandii. Giant *Potato-creeper. 1928K. Gough Garden Bk. for Malaya xii. 205 Several attractive flowering creepers, sometimes called ‘Potato Creepers’ belong to this large genus.
1929, etc. *Potato crisp [see crisp n. 7]. 1940Graves & Hodge Long Week-End xiv. 231 Potato crisps were a popular new food. 1970New Yorker 26 Sept. 125/1 His mum..leaves him a florin..for some ginger pop and potato crisps. 1973J. Thomson Death Cap v. 72 A stiff little breeze blew the empty potato crisp packets across the paving stones. 1976W. Trevor Children of Dynmouth v. 111 Having eaten two packets of bacon-flavoured potato crisps, he had purchased another tube of Rowntree's Fruit Gums.
1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard. III. 207/2 The means employed to limit the spread of Potato Rot..are equally applicable against *Potato Curl.
1845Clough Let. in Poems & Pr. Rem. (1869) I. 104 *Potato-disease, and abolition of corn-laws. 1870Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 153 He is equally at home with the potato-disease.
1912M. B. Brown Just Use-it-Up vi. 139 *Potato dumpling. This is a very well-known dish in North Germany. 1948Good Housek. Cookery Bk. ii. 284 Potato dumplings (to serve with Meat or Vegetable Casserole). 1972Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 25 Mar. 52/1 Roast-goose with potato dumplings. 1974‘D. Craig’ Dead Liberty xvii. 100 Dravier asked for roast pork and potato dumplings.
1823W. Cobbett in Weekly Reg. 9 Aug. 356 Never, in this country, will the people be base enough to lie down and expire from starvation under the operation of the extreme unction! Nothing but a *potatoe-eater will ever do that. 1871J. Mackenzie Ten Years North of Orange River i. 16, I have heard ‘potato⁓eater’ employed by them [sc. Dutch farmers] as a contemptuous term for an Englishman! 1978Maledicta II. 168 Potato-eater, anyone from Ireland, or of Irish descent, after the Irish dietary staple.
1766Complete Farmer s.v. Potatoe, The *potatoe-eyes cut as before directed, are placed upon this dung,..and this trench is filled up with the mould.
1845E. S. Cayley Lett. to Ld. John Russell (1846) i. 9 The deficiency caused by the *potato failure will be in some measure compensated by the unusually large crops of oats, barley, and beans. 1846Times 7 Feb. 5/1 The extreme variety in the extent of the potato failure, and the..insulated subdivisions of land in which it prevails, lead us to..doubt whether any adjustment of public works can be made to meet the need wherever it may occur. 1846Illustr. London News 12 Sept. 170/3 The hon. and learned gentlemen adverted in the first place to the potato failure. 1978R. Mitchison Life in Scotland vi. 112 If we compare the state of crofting families—sustained, in squalid poverty, through the potato failure of 1846 by their landowners—with the hardships of the..urban poor..in the early 1840's [etc.].
1875J. O'Rourke Hist. Great Irish Famine vii. 196 To have met the *Potato Famine with anything like complete success, would have been a Herculean task for any government. 1881J. A. Froude English in Ireland (new ed.) III. p. xiii, The potato famine, and responsibility of England. 1970R. Lowell Notebk. 106 We're burnt, black chips knocked from the blackest stock: Potato-famine Irish-Puritan, and Puritan—gold made them smile like pigs once. 1974P. Lovesey Invitation to Dynamite Party ii. 27 He was an Irishman whose family emigrated at the time of the potato famine.
1881F. M. Bailey Fern World Austr. 24 *Potatoe Fern.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. ii. 56 How the diuell Luxury with his fat rumpe and *potato finger, tickles these together.
1955Sci. News Let. 5 Feb. 89/3 To potato chips, French fries and home fries can now be added ‘*potato flakes’, a new kind of dehydrated mashed potato... The flakes are made by drying cooked mashed potatoes on the rolls of a steam-heated double-drum drier. 1961Coast to Coast 1959–60 165 A whole family of people..had spread a rug beside the path and were drinking coloured drinks from bottles and eating potato-flakes from bags.
1806in R. B. Thomas Farmer's Almanack for 1807, The *potatoe fly, or bug, appears about the first of July. 1832W. D. Williamson Hist. State Maine I. 172 Potato Fly (looks like a Spanish Fly). 1854E. Emmons Agric. N.Y. V. 96 Cantharidæ{ddd}are at times abundant upon potato vines, whence they have acquired the name of potato fly.
1857Henfrey Bot §637 The common mould of paste,..the green mould of cheese... The *Potato-fungus.
1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), *Potato Grant, a patch of land for growing vegetables formerly granted by the owner to each of his slaves (West Indies).
1832G. C. Lewis Lett. (1870) 22 The *potato-headed jury.
1856Trans. Mich. Agric. Soc. VII. 53 D. O. & W. S. Penfield..[exhibited] six Partridge's *potatoe hooks. 1874Ann. Rep. Vermont Board Agric. II. 551 Then with axes, potato hooks, and bog hoes, the turf was all peeled off.
1791F. Burney Diary 4 June, ‘Hold you your *potato-jaw, my dear’, cried the Duke [of Clarence], patting her [Mrs. Schwellenberg].
1927,1974*Potato latke [see latke].
1831Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) IV. 302/2 The same price is taken for a *potato loaf.
1855Chicago Times 16 Jan. 4/1 Butter moulds and stamps, ladles, rolling pins, *potato mashers..at Hollister's Bazaar. 1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 439/3 Tinned wire Potato Masher, wood handle. 1906Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 26 Jan. 4/6 (Advt.), Kitchen utilities..Potato Masher, wood. Potato Masher, metal. 1915J. Webster Dear Enemy (1916) 238, I casually picked up the potato masher this morning while I was commenting upon last night's over-salty soup. 1919H. G. Proctor Iron Division xii. 188 The German trench bombs were known..as ‘potato mashers’, because they are about the size of a can of sweet corn, fastened on the end of a short stick. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 229 Potato-masher grenade, the name given a species of German hand-grenade, resembling in form a domestic potato-masher. 1929F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1930) x. 266 We saw bushels of potato-masher grenades, minenwerfer shells, and a machine gun belt of cartridges all of twenty feet long. 1929W. T. Scanlon God have Mercy on Us! xxvi. 160 We had instructions on the use of every kind of grenade, including the German potato-mashers. 1945L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 31/1 Potato masher, drum⁓stick. 1967N. Freeling Strike Out 65 An old enamel saucepan,..and an oval metal affair with zigzag holes punched in it..he recognised it as a potato-masher. 1969I. Kemp Brit. G.I. in Vietnam vi. 131 One..had begun to lob in grenades at us; these were of the ‘potato masher’ type, which sometimes failed to explode. 1969E. H. Pinto Treen 141 Potato mashers were always turned from a single block,..like this one, they were often made en suite with a rolling pin..because in olden times, the pair was considered a lucky wedding gift.
1812Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 339 It resembles a *potatoe-mill.
1891Agric. Gaz. New South Wales II. 158 Mr. A. Bragg..and Mr. T. B. Linley..have forwarded potatoes infested with the larvae or grubs of the *potato moth. 1926R. J. Tillyard Insects Austral. & N.Z. xxviii. 426 The Potato Moth..is an introduced pest of potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco in both countries. 1965Austral. Encycl. V. 88/2 The larvae of the potato-moth..tunnel in the leaf tissue.
1930J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel iv. 313 You know what we'd do if we had a man in the White House instead of a yellow⁓bellied *potatomouthed reformer...? We'd..clean this place up.
1937Daily Express 17 Mar. 6/4 Lewis, square, heavy⁓browed, stentorian, also potato-mouthed some words, seemed bothered by having to stick to text.
1866Treas. Bot. 1069/2 This *potato-murrain appears..to be due to the presence of a fungus, Botrytis (or Peronospora) infestans.
1881M. E. Braddon Asph. I. 119 You wouldn't love a man with a *potato-nose or a pimply complexion, if he were morally the most perfect creature in the universe.
1808W. Marshall Review I. 78 The ‘*potatoe oat’,—a truly accidental variety,—being of later discovery. 1829Glover's Hist. Derby i. 198 The American, or potatoe-oat, has been found to produce from seventy to eighty-four bushels per acre.
1845J. C. Loudon Suburban Horticulturist iii. v. 661 The *potato-onion may be planted in February. 1855,1866[see onion n. 2 a]. 1890E. Watts Mod. Pract. Gardening i. xiii. 68 The underground, or potato onion,..is so called from its habit of increasing at the bulb. 1955W. E. Shewell-Cooper Complete Veg. Grower x. 135 The Potato Onion..is more difficult to get hold of today.
1935L. Zara Blessed is Man i. iii. 103 She made him a heaping plateful of the fried *potato pancakes so closely associated with this holiday [sc. Chanukah]. 1941L. Hellman Watch on Rhine ii. 76, I love a good potato pancake. 1960Good Housek. Cookery Bk. (rev. ed.) 535/2 Potato pancakes... Put the mashed potato through a sieve if at all lumpy, add seasoning, and work the flour into it to make a smooth dough. 1962S. V. Thompson Let. 30 Jan. in G. Marx Groucho Lett. (1967) 237 Mother thinks that with this you serve potato pancakes and onions with peas. True? 1978Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. (Detroit Suppl.) 28/2 With that, they bring potato pancakes which are fresh and moist on the inside, with a good crusty exterior.
1794E. Drinker Jrnl. 25 June (1889) 229 John brought in a Mole he found in a *potato patch he was laying out. 1807Salmagundi 15 Oct. 331 Some..enjoy the varied and romantick scenery of..potatoe patches and log huts. 1863A. D. Whitney Faith Gartney's Girlhood xxii. 207 A hollow, beyond which were the cornfields and potato-patches. 1913J. London Valley of Moon 404 Hall put Billy to work on the potato patch—a matter of three acres which the poet farmed erratically. 1919G. B. Shaw O'Flaherty V.C. in Heartbreak House 165, I..gave him for his mother a Volumnia of the potato patch rather than an affectionate parent from whom he could not so easily have torn himself away. 1972R. Adams Watership Down xxxiv. 263 The cottager..shot him [sc. a rabbit] as he came through the potato-patch at dawn.
1875Trollope Way we live Now II. c. 314 If her future husband would consent to live on potatoes, she would be quite satisfied with the *potato-peelings. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xiii. 295 Tales are told of..forcing a new boy into a box or dustbin half-filled with fish-heads, potato peelings..and making him stay there for an hour. 1975Sunday Times 16 Nov. 44/3 My husband was having fun posting old tomatoes and potato peelings down the waste disposal.
1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. ii. i, Feeding on larks, sparrows, *potatoe-pies, and such good unctuous meats. 1609Dekker Guls Horne-Booke i. 7 Potato-pies and Custards, stood like the sinfull suburbs of Cookery. 1646J. Hall Poems, To Yng. Authour, Then hast thy finger in Potato pies. 1728E. Smith Compl. Housewife (ed. 2) sig. a7v (heading) A Bill of Fare..For June... Second Course... Potato-Pye. 1807Complete Farmer II. s.v., But the best way of storing the roots is..in what are called potatoe-pies. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Potatoe-pie, a small hillock of potatoes covered with straw, sods, and earth, to protect them from frost during the winter season. 1842Ainsworth's Mag. I. 2 A large remnant of a potato-pie in a brown earthenware dish. 1880Baring-Gould Mehalah xi, She found the parson in his garden..making a potatoe pie for the winter. 1965in P. Jennings Living Village (1968) 61 Weather permitting, potato pies are opened and the potatoes sold to the merchants. 1972K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me xviii. 152 We took a cheap night flight to Blackpool... I had potato pie for supper.
1883Girls' Own Paper 14 July 654/1 *Potato puffs .—Chop..some cold meat or fish. Mash some potatoes and make them into a paste with an egg... Fold... Fry. 1972V.A.T.: Scope & Coverage (H.M. Customs) 22 Any of the following when packaged for human consumption without further preparation, namely,..potato sticks, potato puffs and similar products made from the potato.
1882G. B. Bartlett New Games for Parlor & Lawn 212 The *Potato Race... This amusing out-of-door game requires a swift runner, with his feet well under control. 1946R.A.F. Jrnl. May 167 The..Inter-Command Sports Meeting will include the following events..:—potato race,..relay race. 1978‘F. Parrish’ Sting of Honeybee i. 8 The potato race starts in three minutes. All entries to the collecting ring. Ibid. 9 The strange grey pony was not in the potato race.
1848Rep. Comm. Patents 1847 (U.S.) I. 136 The *potato rot seems likewise to have been felt to a considerable extent among the common potato. 1854B. P. Shillaber Life & Sayings Mrs. Partington 43 A more disastrous havoc of potato rot has never since transpired than assailed her crops. 1858Penny Cycl. 2nd Suppl. 530/1 The distress occasioned by the potato rot and bad harvests. 1885Times (weekly ed.) 11 Sept. 9/1 The ‘potato-rot’ made a clean sweep of their little patches.
1861Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 593 *Potato Salad... Cut the potatoes into slices about ½ inch in thickness; put these into a salad-bowl with oil and vinegar [etc.]. 1877E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 399, I should weary the reader if I went on to sound the praises of the mustard and cress salad,..the potato salad, and the salade de légumes. 1952B. Malamud Natural (1963) 185 Turkey, potato salad, cheese, and pickles. 1967M. Gilbert Dust & Heat iii. 246 He stopped..at a delicatessen store in Soho where he bought..a carton of cold potato salad. 1978J. Symons Blackheath Poisonings i. 39 There was a tongue..a potato salad, a Russian salad and a green salad.
1885A. Edwardes Girton Girl I. vi. 136 Boiled mullet, hot *potato scones, with other indigenous Guernsey dishes. 1931D. L. Sayers Five Red Herrings Foreword, We shall come back next summer to eat some more potato scones. 1973Perthshire Advertiser 8 Aug. 17/6 Baking... Potato scones.
1830Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) II. 355/2 *Potato-Scoop.
1844J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. vi, In London at a *potato-shop.
1882Garden 11 Mar. 164/3 The chances are it [the ground] is *Potatoe-sick.
1883R. Haldane Workshop Receipts Ser. ii. 12/2 *Potato-spirit is made chiefly in Germany. 1884St. James' Gaz. 19 Dec. 4/1 Drinking Hamburg sherry, potato-spirit and other such poison.
1902Daily Chron. 15 Apr. 8/4 The experiments in *potato-spraying were continued..with satisfactory results.
1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard. III. 209/1 Still another American beetle that injures Potato crops is the *Potato-stalk Weevil (Baridius trinotatus).
1972*Potato stick [see potato puff above].
1859Page Handbk. Geol. Terms 301 *Potato-stones, a quarryman's term for the geodes of the mineralogist; rounded irregular concretions of various composition. 1895J. W. Anderson Prospector's Handbk. (ed. 6) 97 Heliotrope.., firestone and quartz cat's eye, potato-stone, &c.
1895M. Ronald Century Cook Bk. i. facing p. 82 (caption) Fluted knife for cutting *potato straws. c1950Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. xxx. 692 Potato straws... Slice the potatoes thinly, cut them into strips about 1½ inches long... Fry the straws..until crisp.
1785Grose Dict. Vulg. T. s.v. Red rag, Shut your *potatoe trap. 1860Thackeray Round. Papers iv, And now Tom..delivered a rattling clinker upon the Benicia Boy's potato-trap.
1892Insect Life IV. 239 (heading) The *Potato-Tuber Moth (Lita solanella). 1928Metcalf & Flint Destructive & Useful Insects xvi. 481 Potato tuber moth..is very destructive to potatoes in warm dry regions. 1932Jrnl. Econ. Entomol. XXV. 625 During the past nine years the potato tuber moth..has caused economic losses to potato growers. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 221/3 The district is not suited to the growing of late potatoes because from January onward the potato tuber moth is very active.
1939Metcalfe & Flint Destructive & Useful Insects (ed. 2) xvi. 516 *Potato tuberworm..is very destructive to potatoes in warm dry regions. 1960Jrnl. Econ. Entomol. LIII. 868/1 The potato tuberworm, Gnorimoschema operculella.., has long been a pest of potatoes in California.
1774P. V. Fithian Jrnl. 19 Sept. (1900) 257, I took a Walk thro' the Pumpkin & *Potatoe Vines. 1870Amer. Naturalist III. 92 The early frosts..nearly killed the potato vines. 1902L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. IV. 1680/2 Solanum{ddd}jasminoides, Paxt. Potato Vine (from the fl[ower]s.). Fine greenhouse climbing shrub. 1939L. & J. Bush-Brown America's Garden Bk. xxiv. 807 Potato Vine. Solanum jasminoides. Annual... Star-shaped, white flowers. 1947Southern Folklore Q. XI. 264 Proverbial remarks disparaging to a person's character [include]..this pronunciamento from central Mississippi: ‘He ought to have been hung when a potato vine would hang him.’ 1963Robertson & Gooding Bot. for Caribbean xxiii. 197 Climbers... Chalice Vine... Potato Vine (Solanum wendlandii). 1971B. Clark in E. L. Wardman Bermuda Jubilee Garden i. 6 There is a very wide selection to be made from..potato-vines (Solanum seaforthianum and S. wendlandii), and chalice-vines. 1977P. Moyes To kill Coconut xv. 207 Henry was eating breakfast under an arbour of potato-vines and goat's foot.
1899Morrow Bohem. Paris 30 The fruit- and *potato-women came after, and then the chair-menders.
1842T. W. Harris Treat. Insects Injurious to Vegetation 226 Every farmer's boy knows the *potato-worm. 1879Scribner's Monthly Dec. 242/1 This white grub, which the farmers often call the ‘potato worm’ is..the strawberry's most formidable foe.
Hence poˈtato v. trans., to plant or crop with potatoes; poˈtatoey a., nonce-wd., of the nature of a potato; poˈtatoless a., without potatoes.
1844Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. V. i. 66 The land is potatoed the following year. 1883Hertfordsh. Mercury 21 July 4/2 The plan of perpetually potatoing the land. 1865Reader 29 July 119/2 As potatoey as the peach over the way. 1807Syd. Smith Plymley's Lett. iv. 30 Do you think that satisfaction and disaffection do not travel down from Lord Fingal to the most potatoeless Catholic in Ireland? 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xv. 324 Eating our potatoe-less breakfast. |