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Potency; capacity. [R.] Sir W. Hamilton.

The quality or state of being potent; physical or moral power; inherent strength; energy; ability to effect a purpose; capability; efficacy; influence. "Drugs of potency." Hawthorne. A place of potency and away o' the state. Shak.

Producing great physical effects; forcible; powerful' efficacious; as, a potent medicine. "Harsh and potent injuries." Shak. Moses once more his potent rod extends. Milton.

Sovereignty. [Obs.]

One who is potent; one who possesses great power or sway; a prince, sovereign, or monarch. The blessed and only potentate. 1 Tim. vi. 15. Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones. Milton.

Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential. [Obs.] "And hath in his effect a voice potential." Shak.

The quality or state of being potential; possibility, not actuality; inherent capability or disposition, not actually exhibited.

With power; potently. [Obs.]

To render active or potent. Coleridge.

An instrument for measuring or comparing electrial potentials or electro-motive forces.

To render the latent power of (anything) available. Dunglison.

With great force or energy; powerfully; efficaciously. "You are potently opposed." Shak.

The quality or state of being potent; powerfulness; potency; efficacy.

A chief ruler; a potentate. [Obs.] Wyclif. "An irous potestate." Chaucer.

Authoritative. [Obs.] Bp. Pearson.

A pot-shaped cannon; a mortar. [Obs.] "Twelve potguns of brass." Hakluyt.

An apothecary. [Obs.]

See Poteen.

Bustle; confusion; tumult; flutter; bother. [Written also potter, and pudder.] "What a pother and stir!" Oldham. "Coming on with a terrible pother." Wordsworth.

A circular hole formed in the rocky beds of rivers by the grinding action of stones or gravel whirled round by the water in what was at first a natural depression of the rock.