1837. Marryat, Snarley-Yow (1897). 52, 4. Smack! crack! This is our jubilee! Huzza, my lads, we'll keep the pot boiling.
1847. Buckstone, Nine too Many, i. Well, then, I was saying that I furnish the means to keep the pot boiling, therefore it only remains to distribute the different employments of our little household!
1858. G. Eliot, Amos Barton, vi. "The poor fellow must have a hard pull to get along, with his small income and large family. Let us hope the Countess does something towards making the pot boil."
1869. Fun, 29 May, 'A Double Event.' The Treasurer and the Box Book-keeper take their benefits . . . heavily backed by the two companies, and we trust the public will put on a pot for them.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, i. There were other chances and pickings which helped to make the pot boil.
1893. Emerson, Lippo, xxii. He gets to know their account, and he puts the pot on 'em settling day. Ibid., viii. I found at last I must go on pitch by myself, to keep the pot boiling, as many a true artiste has too.
1898. Cigarette, 26 Nov., 13, 3. Now then, keep the pot a-biling, Mister Graydon down below!
Potato, subs. (common).—See
quot.: used esp. for a heel
through an undarned sock or
stocking.
1885. Baring-Gould, Eng., Ill. Mag., June, 616. 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.
Small Potatoes, adv. phr. (American).—Petty; mean; contemptible: also as adj. and subs.
1846. New York Herald, 13 Dec. Small potato politicians and pettifogging lawyers.
1855. Haliburton, Human Nature, 38. It's small potatoes for a man of war to be hunting poor game like us little fore-and-aft vessels.
18[?]. Whitcher, Widow Bedott Papers, 188. The Presbyterian minister here is such small potatoes.
1891. Morning Advertiser, 20 April. The Hardwicke Plate dwindled down to very small potatoes.
The potato (or clean potato), subs. phr. (common).—The best; the whitest (q.v.); the tip-top: see A 1.
1849. Ainsworth, Rookwood, Pref. xxxvi. Of all rhymesters of the 'road,' however, Dean Burrowes is as yet most fully entitled to the laurel. Larry is quite the potato.
1880. R. M. Jephson, Pink Wedding, 235. "I am convinced he is a first-rate one—quite the clean potato, in fact."
1899. Sporting Times, 15 Ap., 2, 4. Mr. Pinero has . . . pulled his play out from the oven absolutely the clean potato.
Potatoes and point, subs. phr. (common).—Potatoes without salt: point = an imaginary seasoning, as in pointing, to bacon, cheese, anything: cf. 'Eat your bread and smell your cheese!'
1834. Carlyle, Sartor Resartus [Century]. Their universal sustenance is the root named potato, . . . generally without condiment or relish of any kind, save an unknown condiment named point.
Potato-boggle, subs. phr. (common).—A
scarecrow.
Potato-finger, subs. phr. (old
colloquial).—1. A long thick
finger. Whence (2) a penis of
dimensions; and (3) a dildo
(q.v.).
1602. Shakspeare, Tr. and Cress., v. 2, 56. How the devil Luxury, with his fat rump and potato-finger, tickles these together.
Potato-trap (or -jaw), subs. phr.
(common).—The mouth: hence,
'Shut your potato-trap and give
your tongue a holiday' = Be
