DCHP-1 Online

potlatch ((v.)) [< n.] Esp. Pacific Coast

• 1a v. give with the expectation of a return gift.

  • 1870  Willingly would we potlatch a couple of ordinary blankets for one of their iktas.
  • 1966  Potlatch means give away--but not quite. because a return was in order, of more than the gift and of something that often might be quite unusual.

• 1b v. give freely.

  • 1909  And it seems to me . . . that the man who potlatched the whiskey and landed me into the hole/ Was Grubbe that unmerciful bounder, Grubbe of the City Patrol.
  • 1945  Chief Wattle-kainum potlatched all his wealth to save the white man's life. . . .
  • 1962  He still has his gasboat and fishes on and off, but only catches sufficient to eat and potlatch to the older Indians, some of whom are in their nineties.

• 2a v. hold or take part in a potlatch (def. 2a).

  See also: potlatch ((n.)) (def. 2a)  

  • 1899  (1961)  To potlatch or not to potlatch is the question which is agitating the minds of Indians of Nass River district. . . .
  • 1927  "By Jove, the Songhees are up to something, I think they're going to potlatch."
  • 1961  At Alert Bay, in 1946, the late Mrs. Stephen Cook reported to the writer that "my sons have been chased from the fishing grounds because they would not potlatch."
  • 1966  . . . the Owekenos cleaned up on the Bella Bellas, by inviting the Bella Bellas to potlatch with them one evening in a strange house, built half underground, with entrance by a ladder leaning downward inside.

• 2b v. Informal hold a party.

  See also: potlatch ((n.)) (def. 4)  

  • 1957  "By the way, this [Christmas] season do we potlatch at our post or at yours?"