Verb

To thrust.

* (editors), ''Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare: The Plays of Shakespeare , Volume 3: Tragedies, page 83,

I'll potch at him some way, / Or wrath or craft may get him.

To trample.

* 1837 , John Orville Taylor, The Farmer?s School Book , page 116,

Afterwards, the second pasture should be treated in the same manner, and the rest in course, feeding the wettest pasture after the driest, that the soil may be less potched .

Verb

(es)

(to cook in simmering water).

(Wiseman)

* 1627 , , Sylva Sylvarum: Or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries , 1670, page 14,

The Yolks of Eggs'' are of them?elves ?o well prepared by ''Nature'' for nourishment, as (?o they be Potched , or Rear boyled) they need no other preparation or mixture; yet they may be taken al?o raw, when they are new laid, with ''Malm?ey'' or ''Sweet Wine .

* 1849 , , Thomas Johnson (translator), Adriaan van den Spiegel (additional tractates), Concerning the Plague'', ''The Workes of that Famous Chirurgion Ambro?e Parey , page 553,

Eggs potched and eaten with the juice of Sorrel, are verie good. Likewi?e Barlie-water ?ea?oned with the grains of a tart Pomgranat, and if the Fever bee vehement, with the ?eeds of white Poppie.

* 1860 , Notes and Queries'', ''The Medical Times and Gazette , Volume 1: For 1860, page 167,

And if a man should break his fast with a light and nourishing meate, then I say there is nothing better than a couple of egges potched , or the yolkes of two egges sodden rere and put in one shell, seasoned with a little pepper, butter and salt, supped off warme, drinking after it a good draught of claret wine.

Verb

(es)

To cook something in simmering water.

* {{quote-book, year=1931, author=

, title=Death Walks in Eastrepps , chapter=1/1 citation , passage=Eldridge closed the despatch-case with a snap and, rising briskly, walked down the corridor to his solitary table in the dining-car. Mulligatawny soup, poached turbot, roast leg of lamb—the usual railway dinner.}}

To be cooked in simmering water

* Francis Bacon

The white of an egg with spirit of wine, doth bake the egg into clots, as if it began to poach .

To become soft or muddy.

* Mortimer

Chalky and clay lands chap in summer, and poach in winter.

To make soft or muddy.

Cattle coming to drink had punched and poached the river bank into a mess of mud.

(Tennyson)

(obsolete) To stab; to pierce; to spear, as fish.

(Carew)

(obsolete) To force, drive, or plunge into anything.

* Sir W. Temple

his horse poaching one of his legs into some hollow ground

(obsolete) To begin and not complete.

(Francis Bacon)

Verb

(es)

(intransitive) To take game or fish illegally.

(intransitive) To take anything illegally or unfairly.

(intransitive) To cause an employee or customer to switch from a competing company to your own company.