Potomac

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Potomac

(pəˈtəʊmək)

(Placename) a river in the E central US, rising in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia: flows northeast, then generally southeast to Chesapeake Bay. Length (from the confluence of headstreams): 462 km (287 miles)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Po•to•mac

(pəˈtoʊ mək)

n.

a river flowing SE from the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia, along the boundary between Maryland and Virginia to Chesapeake Bay. 287 mi. (460 km) long.

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Noun	1.	Potomac - a river in the east central United States; rises in West Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains and flows eastward, forming the boundary between Maryland and Virginia, to the Chesapeake Bay Potomac River Free State, Maryland, Old Line State, MD - a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies Old Dominion, Old Dominion State, VA, Virginia - a state in the eastern United States; one of the original 13 colonies; one of the Confederate States in the American Civil War Mountain State, West Virginia, WV - a state in east central United States
	2.	Potomac - term sometimes used to refer to Washington, D.C.

References in classic literature ?

It is not proper to enter here into the particulars of what part of the colony of Virginia we settled in, for divers reasons; it may suffice to mention that we went into the great river Potomac, the ship being bound thither; and there we intended to have settled first, though afterwards we altered our minds.

Upon those considerations, I went on with telling my husband the absolute necessity there was of our not settling in Potomac River, at least that we should be presently made public there; whereas if we went to any other place in the world, we should come in with as much reputation as any family that came to plant; that, as it was always agreeable to the inhabitants to have families come among them to plant, who brought substance with them, either to purchase plantations or begin new ones, so we should be sure of a kind, agreeable reception, and that without any possibility of a discovery of our circumstances.

On this news we hired a sloop to take in our goods, and taking, as it were, a final farewell of Potomac River, we went with all our cargo over to Maryland.

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All's quiet along the Potomac. Those Beecher natives are having some sort of a song- fest, though."

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"When our brigade first went into camp on the Potomac, we used to be brought up standing, occasionally, by an ear-splitting howl of anguish.

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The "Drummer Boy of the Potomac" deserted, and lo, we had never a celebrity left!

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A Potomac tribesman who exchanged the privilege of governing himself for the advantage of good government.

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Bonnycastle's simply because he liked the lady, whose receptions were the pleasantest in Washington, and because if he didn't go there he didn't know what he should do; that absence of alternatives having become familiar to him by the waters of the Potomac. There were a great many things he did because if he didn't do them he didn't know what he should do.

It was to consist of about twenty bright people, and they'd go down the Potomac to Mount Vernon.

They walked about, afterwards on the splendid terrace that surrounds the Capitol, the great marble floor on which it stands, and made vague remarks--Pandora's were the most definite--about the yellow sheen of the Potomac, the hazy hills of Virginia, the far-gleaming pediment of Arlington, the raw confused- looking country.

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"Even your traditions make the case in my favor, Chingachgook," he said, speaking in the tongue which was known to all the natives who formerly inhabited the country between the Hudson and the Potomac, and of which we shall give a free translation for the benefit of the reader; endeavoring, at the same time, to preserve some of the peculiarities, both of the individual and of the language.

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The heights of this neighbourhood, above the Potomac River, are very picturesque: and are free, I should conceive, from some of the insalubrities of Washington.