potluck

Meanings

1. A meal, especially one offered to a guest, consisting of whatever food is available.
2. Whatever is available in a particular situation.
3. 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.
4. The last draft or portion of an alcoholic beverage in a pot or other drinking vessel.

1. To take part in a potluck, where each participant brings a meal to be shared by all.

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.

Translations