poach
verb/pəʊtʃ/
/pəʊtʃ/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they poach | /pəʊtʃ/ /pəʊtʃ/ |
| he / she / it poaches | /ˈpəʊtʃɪz/ /ˈpəʊtʃɪz/ |
| past simple poached | /pəʊtʃt/ /pəʊtʃt/ |
| past participle poached | /pəʊtʃt/ /pəʊtʃt/ |
| -ing form poaching | /ˈpəʊtʃɪŋ/ /ˈpəʊtʃɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] poach something to cook food, especially fish, gently in a small amount of liquid
- poached salmon
- chicken poached in white wine
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- [transitive] poach something to cook an egg gently in nearly boiling water after removing its shell
- [transitive, intransitive] poach (something) to illegally hunt birds, animals or fish on somebody else’s property or without permission
- The elephants are poached for their tusks.
- [transitive, intransitive] to take and use somebody/something that belongs to somebody/something else, especially in a secret, dishonest or unfair way
- poach somebody/something from somebody/something The company poached the contract from their main rivals.
- poach (somebody/something) Several of our employees have been poached by a rival firm.
- She accused him of poaching her ideas.
- I hope I'm not poaching on your territory (= doing something that is actually your responsibility).
Word Originsenses 1 to 2 late Middle English: from Old French pochier, earlier in the sense ‘enclose in a bag’, from poche ‘bag, pocket’.senses 3 to 4 early 16th cent. (in the sense ‘push roughly together’): apparently related to poke; perhaps partly from French pocher ‘enclose in a bag’, from poche ‘bag, pocket’.
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poach