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/pˈɑtərz fild/ Listen

noun

Potter n.

One whose occupation is to make earthen vessels. "The potter heard, and stopped his wheel."

One who hawks crockery or earthenware. (Prov. Eng.)

One who pots meats or other eatables.

(Zool.) The red-bellied terrapin. See Terrapin.

Potter's asthma (Med.), emphysema of the lungs; so called because very prevalent among potters.

Potter's clay. See under Clay.

Potter's field, a public burial place, especially in a city, for paupers, unknown persons, and criminals; so named from the field south of Jerusalem, mentioned in

Potter's ore. See Alquifou.

Potter's wheel, a horizontal revolving disk on which the clay is molded into form with the hands or tools. "My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel."

Potter wasp (Zool.), a small solitary wasp (Eumenes fraternal) which constructs a globular nest of mud and sand in which it deposits insect larvae, such as cankerworms, as food for its young.

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Etymology of 'Potter's field'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Potter's field" Quotes from Famous Books

... Napoleon; I wandered through his palaces at Versailles and Fontainebleau with all of their magnificence and splendor, and I recalled the period of his power and glory among men, and yet, he too died. Then I passed a Potter's field and I looked upon the graves of the unknown, graves of the pauper and the pleb, and I realized that they were at last equal, those who slept in Valhalla and those who slept in the common burying-ground, and that they would each and all hear the first or the second trump ...

— Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence - The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of - Slavery to the Present Time • Various

... Potter's Field. Behold the fate Of those who deal in Witchcrafts, and, when questioned, Refuse to plead their guilt or innocence, And stubbornly drag death ...

— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... "I would keep the potter's field in decent order, and defray the funeral expenses of murderers and paupers. That would be putting liquor money to a legitimate use, making it defray its own ...

— Three People • Pansy

... purchased by Judas Iscariot with the money he received for the betrayal of Jesus Christ. A different version is given in Matthew xxvii. 8, where Judas is said to have cast down the money in the Temple, and the priests who had paid it to have recovered the pieces, with which they bought "the potter's field, to bury strangers in.'' The MS. evidence is greatly in favour of a form Aceldamach. This would seem to mean "the field of thy blood,'' which is unsuitable. Since, however, we find elsewhere one name appearing as both ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... "The babies came, and I was so proud of them! Then the fever broke out. I went to get medicine when she and the little ones were so sick, and I got on a spree—I don't remember—but when I came to, they showed me their graves in the potter's field; they said the medicine might have saved them. Oh, Job, I can't think! It ...

— The Transformation of Job - A Tale of the High Sierras • Frederick Vining Fisher