potluck
/ˈpɑtˌlʌk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.54 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A meal, especially one offered to a guest, consisting of whatever food is available.
Countable; Dated; Uncountable
noun
A shared meal consisting of whatever guests have brought (sometimes without prior arrangement); a potlatch; also, a dish of food brought to such a meal.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
The last draft or portion of an alcoholic beverage in a pot or other drinking vessel.
Countable; Obsolete; Uncountable
verb
To take part in a potluck, where each participant brings a meal to be shared by all.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Here are some leftover beans and meat; we can make a good potluck stew from them."
- "During my Stay here, I was going to take Pot-Luck with Colonel Ingram, and accidentally meeting him in the Way, I told him I deſigned to ſoul a Plate with him, […]"
- "Me, to pot-luck, may any friend invite: / The treat, I can return, is my delight."
- "Instead of frequent potluck enjoyments, it seems folks, now-a-days, regale their friends with a feast, which, if as seldom attempted as the author paints, cannot induce bankruptcy."
- "A pretty way to conciliate 'little tempers' indeed, to add to the offence of spoiling the fish the crime of bringing an unexpected friend to eat it. Pot luck, quotha, when the pot's boiled over this half hour!"
- "But he never contradicted Mrs Hackit—a woman whose "pot luck" was always to be relied on, and who on her side had unlimited reliance on bleeding, blistering, and draughts."
Etymology
From pot + luck. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sense 3 (“a shared meal consisting of whatever guests have brought”) is unlikely to have been influenced by potlatch.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɑtˌlʌk/
- British English: /ˌpɒtˈlʌk/
Usage
- Countable
- Dated
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Obsolete
- Intransitive verb