Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (a.) Producing great physical effects; forcible; efficacious; as, a potent medicine.

2. (a.) Having great authority, control, or dominion; puissant; mighty; influential; as, a potent prince.

3. (a.) Powerful, in an intellectual or moral sense; having great influence; as, potent interest; a potent argument.

4. (n.) A prince; a potentate.

5. (n.) A staff or crutch.

6. (n.) One of the furs; a surface composed of patches which are supposed to represent crutch heads; they are always alternately argent and azure, unless otherwise specially mentioned.