[pəʊtʃ], (Verb)

Definitions:
- illegally hunt or catch (game or fish) on land that is not one's own or in contravention of official protection
(e.g: 20 tigers are thought to have been poached from national parks)

- (of an animal) trample or cut up (turf) with its hoofs
(e.g: zero-grazing saves the fields from poaching)


Phrases:
- poach on someone's territory

Origin:
early 16th century (in the sense ‘push roughly together’): apparently related to poke; sense 1 is perhaps partly from French pocher ‘enclose in a bag’ (see poach)

[pəʊtʃ], (Verb)

Definitions:
- cook (an egg) without its shell in or over boiling water
(e.g: a breakfast of poached egg and grilled bacon)


Phrases:

Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French pochier, earlier in the sense ‘enclose in a bag’, from poche ‘bag, pocket’