poach

9 definitions • 13 examples

to cook something such as a fish, or an egg with its shell removed, by putting it in gently boiling water or other liquid:

We had poached eggs for breakfast.

Do you like pears poached in red wine?

to catch and kill animals without permission on someone else's land:

The farmer claimed that he shot the men because they were poaching on his land.

to take and use for yourself unfairly or dishonestly something, usually an idea, that belongs to someone else:

Jeff always poaches my ideas, and then pretends that they're his own.

to persuade someone who works for someone else to come and work for you:

They were furious when one of their best managers was poached by another company.

to cook something in water or another liquid that is almost boiling:

poached eggs

to catch or kill an animal without permission on someone else’s property, or to kill animals illegally to get valuable parts of them:

[ T ] Anybody you see with a piece of ivory has poached it.

[ I ] Foreign fishing boats were caught poaching offshore.

to persuade employees or customers of another company to become your employees or customers instead:

poach sb from sth The company is considering a nationwide expansion after poaching a new chief operating officer from a rival restaurant group.

poach staff He is suing the rival company for damages of about £35m after they poached 27 staff from him earlier this year.

poach clients/customers Such data should help newcomers to poach customers from existing companies.

to take ideas that belong to another person, company, etc. and use them for yourself, especially in a secret and dishonest way:

Several unscrupulous IT companies are offering 'free' seminars on e-commerce to customers and then quietly poaching ideas.

to persuade very able and skilled employees from another organization to come and work for you:

Rival brokers have been sniffing around in a bid to poach talent.