Definition

1. Verb (Transitive):

   • To cook (an egg without its shell, fish, or fruit) in simmering or gently boiling liquid: The primary culinary meaning involves cooking food gently in hot liquid.
   • To take (game or fish) illegally from private property or in contravention of official protection: The primary conservation/legal meaning involves the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals.

2. Verb (Intransitive):

   • To trespass on private property for the purpose of taking game or fish: To engage in the act of illegal hunting or fishing.
   • To become soft or muddy from being trampled: (Of land) to become waterlogged or churned up, typically by animals or traffic.

Usage Examples

• Verb (Transitive - Culinary):

  • For breakfast, I like to poach eggs in water with a little vinegar.
  • The chef will poach the salmon in a court-bouillon.

• Verb (Transitive - Illegal Hunting):

  • It is a serious crime to poach endangered rhinoceroses for their horns.
  • Authorities arrested men trying to poach turtles from the protected beach.

• Verb (Intransitive - Illegal Activity):

  • People were caught poaching in the national park after dark.

• Verb (Intransitive - Land Condition):

  • The field poached badly after the heavy rain and the passage of the cattle.

Advanced Usage

• "To poach on someone's territory/preserves": To encroach on or intrude into an area considered to belong to another, often in a competitive context beyond literal hunting.
  • The new company is accused of poaching on our established market territory.
  • By recruiting our top manager, they are clearly poaching on our preserves.

Variants and Related Words

• Poacher (noun): A person who hunts or fishes illegally.

  • The poacher was fined for taking deer out of season.

• Poached (adjective):

  • Describing food cooked by poaching: a poached pear.
  • Describing land made soft: the poached ground near the gate.

Synonyms

• For illegal hunting: Hunt illegally, steal, plunder.
• For cooking: Simmer, coddle (specifically for eggs).
• For encroaching: Trespass, intrude, infringe.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Poach on: To encroach or trespass upon. (See "Advanced Usage" for examples).

Related Idioms

• "To poach an employee": To entice an employee to leave one company to work for another.
  • The rival firm managed to poach our lead software engineer with a better offer.

Verb

1. cook in a simmering liquid
   • poached apricots
2. hunt illegally
   • people are poaching elephants for their ivory