pouch

American  

[pouch] / paʊtʃ /

noun

1. a bag, sack, or similar receptacle, especially one for small articles or quantities.

   a tobacco pouch.

2. a small moneybag.

3. a bag for carrying mail.

4. a bag or case of leather, used by soldiers to carry ammunition.

5. something shaped like or resembling a bag or pocket.

6. Chiefly Scot. a pocket in a garment.

7. a baggy fold of flesh under the eye.

8. Anatomy, Zoology. a baglike or pocketlike part; a sac or cyst, as the sac beneath the bill of pelicans, the saclike dilation of the cheeks of gophers, or the receptacle for the young of marsupials.

9. Botany. a baglike cavity.

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verb (used with object)

1. to put into or enclose in a pouch, bag, or pocket; pocket.

2. to arrange in the form of a pouch.

3. (of a fish or bird) to swallow.

verb (used without object)

1. to form a pouch or a cavity resembling a pouch.

pouch British  

/ paʊtʃ /

noun

1. a small flexible baglike container

   a tobacco pouch

2. a saclike structure in any of various animals, such as the abdominal receptacle marsupium in marsupials or the cheek fold in rodents

3. anatomy any sac, pocket, or pouchlike cavity or space in an organ or part

4. another word for mailbag

5. a Scot word for pocket

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verb

1. (tr) to place in or as if in a pouch

2. to arrange or become arranged in a pouchlike form

3. (tr) (of certain birds and fishes) to swallow

Other Word Forms

• pouchy adjective

Etymology

Origin of pouch

1350–1400; Middle English pouche < Anglo-French, variant of Old French poche; also poke, poque bag. See poke ²

Explanation

A pouch is a small container or bag, like the pouch full of dog treats you carry when you take your new puppy to obedience school. Sit! Stay! Good boy. It used to be much more common for people to carry things around in pouches for safety and convenience — money pouches, mail pouches, tobacco pouches, and so on. Often these were drawstring bags that cinched securely at the top. The word came to be used for other things with a similar shape, including animal cavities meant for carrying babies (think a kangaroo's pouch) and various pocket-shaped receptacles.

Example Sentences

Carlson and Patel also launched a precious metals company and a nicotine pouch company.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

"Invest in a Faraday pouch but replace it every couple of years," he said, "because they become less effective over time."

From BBC • Feb. 7, 2026

Cho applies this culinary overlap to his first Slow Food Fast contribution, bringing a Korean palate to salmon cooked en papillote—French for “in paper,” a method for steam-roasting ingredients in a pouch.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

I’d swapped handbags for the season — a slouchy straw tote with a teak handle traded for a forest-green suede pouch — and my wallet, apparently, hadn’t gotten the memo.

From Salon • Dec. 28, 2025

I saw him approach the guard and hand him a small pouch.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

Related Words

• bag
• pocket
• purse