1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. 80^v iii. things must be considered of Egges..the third is of the manner of their dressinge, as potching, seething or rostinge.

1584 T. Cogan Hauen of Health cxciii. 151 [Eggs] be sodden two waies..the first is called seething..the seconde poching of egges.

1694 T. Tryon Pocket-compan. 11 Poaching is a very good way. Take an Egg [etc.].

1769 B. Clermont tr. Professed Cook (ed. 2) II. 462 Eggs for poaching ought to be very fresh, or they will never look well.

1885 Evening Observer (Dunkirk, N.Y.) 21 Jan. Limed eggs are not suitable for boiling unless their shells are pricked... For poaching they are, as a general rule, useless.

1907 G. A. Escoffier Guide Mod. Cookery ii. xiv. 292 The poaching of fillets of sole must be effected without allowing the cooking-liquor to boil.

1978 Chicago June 236/2 Trout are killed immediately before poaching and sauced with hollandaise at the table.

1998 N. Lawson How to Eat (1999) 239 The apricots that are sold in this country are generally in no fit condition to be eaten, but poaching will help.

1620 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Phylaster iv. 40 He hunts too much in the purlewes, Would he would leaue off poaching.

?c1663 B. Whitelocke Diary (1990) 111 His hounds being..well ordered by his old Hunts man Kenricke whom he tooke from his trade of poching & made his servant.

1676 T. Shadwell Libertine Prol. sig. b2 Our scarcity of Plays you should not blame, When by foul poaching you destroy the Game.

1715 C. Johnson Country Lasses i. 13 If I hear the Conies squeak I'll send the Hunt abroad, I'll ha' no Poaching, no Tunnelling, no driving in the Dark.

1798 C. Varlo Floating Ideas Nature I. xxi. 247 This would put a final stop to poaching, as it would be every land-holder's interest to watch his wild, as well as his tame stock.

1821 P. Egan Life in London iv. (Farmer) You shall be admitted into the preserve; but remember no poaching.

1832 H. Martineau Homes Abroad i. 1 News of murderous poaching expeditions.

1892 Athenæum 20 Aug. 246/3 He has kept free from any suspicion of..literary poaching.

1913 B. Matthews Shakspere as Playwright i. 5 Gossip—about his having in his youth taken part in a poaching adventure on the lands of a wealthy family near Stratford.

1950 R. J. Evans Victorian Age (1965) ii. 30 All over the country men turned to petty crime and violence; in especial a wave of poaching developed.

1977 World of Cricket Monthly June 68/3 The approach had come initially from Imran, and there was no question of poaching on the part of Sussex.

1987 Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) 22 Oct. a3/1 A poaching ring killed bald eagles and hundreds more protected birds in nine states.

2001 Financial Times 27 Jan. (Weekend Suppl.) p. v/6 The Irish grandfather..raised a brood partly on the proceeds of salmon poaching, then squandered the family fortunes joining the IRA.

1766 Compl. Farmer at Potatoe If it [sc. the earth] be moist, I put a double spring-tree bar to the cultivator, to avoid the poaching of the horses.

1780 A. Young Tour Ireland (Dublin ed.) I. 116 Lands..sound enough for winter feeding without poaching.

1802 C. Findlater Gen. View Agric. County of Peebles 159 The parks were extremely subject to Winter poaching.

1874 Stevens Point (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 31 Jan. There are a number of valid reasons why manure should never be hauled in the spring. The principal ones are the muddy state of the roads, the poaching of the soil, [etc.].

1920 J. Masefield Right Royal ii. 60 Plastered with poachings he rode on forsaken.

1971 Power Farming Mar. 7/3 When the injection equipment is used on grassland it can improve land drainage and offset the effects of compaction and poaching.

1992 Wantage & Grove Herald 5 Nov. 3/3 They hate horse riders because, they say, they are intimidating and cause poaching of the ground.

1870 Times 21 May 14/4 (advt.) The plant and machinery of the Hampton paper mills..; including..11 cast-iron breaking, beating, and poaching engines.

1880 J. Dunbar Pract. Papermaker 27 The quantities of half-stuff filled into the potching engine should at all times be as uniform as possible.

1921 Times 17 Sept. 16/2 (advt.) Chemical plant and machinery, including..three potching engines, by Bertrams, with motor centrifugal pumps.

1677 N. Lee Rival Queens 65 Pray leave these poaching tricks, if you are wise.

1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade Mecum xxx. 113 To be used by none but idle pouching fellows.

1682 N. Tate Ingratitude of Common-wealth iii. 27 Hark how the whole Kennel Eccho to the Cry Of this old Brace of Curs! A Poaching pair Of Vermine, Fed by the Prey, that others Toil for.

1730 T. Gataker Jealous Clown 16 I think I've disabled that poaching Varlet from ever coming again.

1776 H. Cowley Runaway ii. 14 I started a fine young Puss a few days ago..I..shou'd infallibly have got her, if that sly poaching rogue, Drummond, had not laid a springe in her way.

1797 J. O'Keeffe Wicklow Mountains i. iv. 24 Oh! you poaching villain, where's my game?

1804 A. Young Gen. View Agric. Norfolk vii. 220 Stiff, tenacious, poaching soil.

1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Felix Holt II. xx. 84 Unless you believe in mad old Tommy Trounsem. I wonder where that old poaching fellow is now.

1894 Wellsboro (Pa.) Agitator 11 July 1/7 Bacon, or somebody, looking out for a pseudonym, chose that of a drunken, ignorant, immoral, poaching hanger-on of the stage.

1980 F. Buechner Godric 76 My manor wants an eye to see my franchise duly granted, my greenwood free of poaching rogues.

2003 People (Nexis) 9 Nov. (Sport section) 5 His relatively low salary would mean any poaching club would not have to pay massive compensation to Everton.