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Glite Dictionary
🐶 A pot cleaner 🥣 A vegetable broth
potlicker

potlicker

9.5
A person or animal that licks a cooking pot clean
  • noun
  • /ˈpɑtˌlɪkər/
  • Informal
translation icon : lameador
  • My dog is a real potlicker!

Examples

  • The dog happily licked the pot clean after dinner; he really is a little potlicker.

  • The cat is such a potlicker after dinner.

  • After dinner, the family dog acted as the perfect potlicker and left the kitchen spotless.

  • Grandpa joked that he was a true potlicker because he never let good stew go to waste.

  • The cat became a potlicker whenever there was leftover gravy in the pan.

  • Every night, the cat sneaks into the kitchen to be the first potlicker and savor any leftovers.

  • The children laughed as their puppy turned into a potlicker, enthusiastically cleaning the cooking pot.

Synonyms

licker
vspotlicker
11 4.9

A person or animal that often touches things with their tongue

is specifically about cleaning a cooking vessel by tongue in a playful way
lapper
vspotlicker
8.8

A person or animal that drinks liquid by licking it with the tongue

is about cleaning a cooking vessel rather than drinking liquids
knob-gobbler
vspotlicker
  • Offensive
9.9

A silly person or an animal like a puppy that licks a lot

is friendlier and describes cleaning a cooking vessel in a humorous way

Surface Forms

potlicker singular
potlickers plural

Morphology

potlicker = potlick (semi-transparent) = pot + lick + er

While the components 'pot' and 'lick' are clear, the humorous or affectionate connotation isn't immediately obvious.

Etymology

The word potlicker for a person or animal who licks a cooking pot comes from the simple picture of pot + licker, meaning someone who 'licks' the pot clean. So it is a playful name for a dog, child, or person who eats every last drop.