POTPOURRI • DICTONARY.NET • Definition of Potpourri

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/pˌoʊpʊrˈi/ Listen

Potpourri

noun

A collection containing a variety of sorts of things. Synonyms: assortment, miscellanea, miscellany, mixed bag, mixture, motley, salmagundi, smorgasbord, variety. "He had a variety of disorders" , "A veritable smorgasbord of religions"

A musical composition consisting of a series of songs or other musical pieces from various sources. Synonyms: medley, pastiche.

A jar of mixed flower petals and spices used as perfume.

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Etymology of 'Potpourri'

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"Potpourri" Quotes from Famous Books

... dying, and away in the Rhaetian mountains winter had begun; yet in the lap of the low country summer lingered. The air was soft, and sweet with the perfume of roses, roses living, and roses dead in a potpourri of scattered petals on the grass. It was a garden for lovers, and a night ...

— The Princess Virginia • C. N. Williamson

... went. It was a large room, and contained many treasures in the way of beautiful and valuable old furniture and china. As a rule it was kept shrouded in dust-sheets, but to-day Lisbeth had uncovered everything in preparation for the visitor. There was a faint, delicious scent of potpourri about the room, the recipe of which had been handed down from one generation of Hunter ladies to the next, and was a speciality of the house. On the walls hung the portraits of these same ladies, smiling serenely down upon the room they had known so well. On the rare occasions when Marjory spent ...

— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke

... cared for nothing but amusement, flattery. Was ever a punishment so cruel to the noblest of generous husbands! Because I know he will overlook it, make light of it, never reproach his Riette. And the rose he married comes to him a shrivelled leaf of a potpourri heap. You haven't seen me yet. I was their "beautiful woman." I feel ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... base. Their ships went everywhere to trade, and wherever they traded a few of them usually settled, and where they settled they made money, sending most of it home. Their society seemed to be a loose theo-socialism, and their religion an absurd potpourri of most of the major monotheisms of the Federation period, plus doctrinal and ritualistic innovations of their own. Aside from their propensity for sharp trading, their bigoted refusal to regard anybody not of their creed as more than half ...

— Space Viking • Henry Beam Piper

Words linked to "Potpourri" : range, hotchpotch, piece of music, gallimaufry, musical composition, ragbag, sampler, grab bag, selection, witches' broth, collection, salmagundi, mishmash, omnium-gatherum, assemblage, accumulation, witches' brew, melange, essence, mingle-mangle, hodgepodge, variety, pastiche, alphabet soup, farrago, aggregation, witch's brew, piece, opus, perfume, composition, oddments, odds and ends