#initial-load-header-loader { visibility: hidden!important; } #initial-load-content { visibility: visible!important; } .expandable .expandable-control { display: none!important; } .expandable .expandable-content { display: block!important; visibility: visible!important; max-height: none!important; height: auto!important; }

poke

¹

[pohk]

||

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR poke ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), poked, pok·ing.

to prod or push, especially with something narrow or pointed, as a finger, elbow, stick, etc.: to poke someone in the ribs.

to make (a hole, one's way, etc.) by or as by prodding or pushing.

to thrust or push: She poked her head out of the window.

to force, drive, or stir by or as by pushing or thrusting: He poked the fire up.

to thrust obtrusively: The prosecutor kept poking his finger at the defendant.

verb (used without object), poked, pok·ing.

to make a pushing or thrusting movement with the finger, a stick, etc.

to extend or project (often followed by out): His handkerchief is poking out of his back pocket.

to thrust oneself obtrusively: to poke into something that is not one's affair.

to search curiously; pry (often followed by around or about).

to go or proceed in a slow or aimless way (often followed by along).

noun

a thrust or push.

Informal. a slow or dawdling person; slowpoke.

Idioms

poke fun at, to ridicule or mock, especially covertly or slyly: In her novel, she pokes fun at her ex-husband.

poke one's nose into, Informal. to meddle in; pry into: We felt as if half the people in town were poking their noses into our lives.

Origin of poke

¹

1300–50; Middle English < Middle Dutch, Middle Low German poken to thrust. See poach¹

Related formspok·a·ble, adjective

poke

²

[pohk]

noun

Chiefly Midland U.S. and Scot.. a bag or sack, especially a small one.

a wallet or purse.

Archaic. a pocket.

Origin of poke

²

1250–1300; Middle English < Middle Dutch, whence also Old North French poque, French poche bag, pocket; cf. poach², pocket, pouch

poke

³

[pohk]

noun

a projecting brim at the front of a bonnet, framing the face.

Also called poke bonnet. a bonnet or hat with such a brim.

Origin of poke

³

First recorded in 1760–70; apparently special use of poke¹

poke

⁴

[pohk]

noun

Origin of poke

⁴

1590–1600; perhaps shortening of obsolete pocan pokeweed, perhaps variant of puccoon (pokeberries and puccoon roots were both sources of red dye)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for poke

jab, nudge, shove, dig, punch, stab, stick, protrude, prod, peek, pry, drag, blow, hit, bunt, butt, boost, shoulder, project, awaken

Examples from the Web for poke

Contemporary Examples of poke

These tests prod and poke the children, creating lots of anxiety and taking away from the joy of learning.
Hunger Games Comes to New York State’s Public Schools
Zephyr Teachout
November 26, 2014
People online have been attempting to poke holes in the science of Interstellar.
Christopher Nolan Uncut: On ‘Interstellar,’ Ben Affleck’s Batman, and the Future of Mankind
Marlow Stern
November 10, 2014
But when the pageant itself starts to poke fun at the contestants, organizers should expect that they will lose all credibility.
The Real Housewives of Miss America
Kate Shindle
September 21, 2014
Poke center of Italian sausages with chopstick to make well, fill with chocolate syrup and twist the open end of the sausage.
Epic Meal Empire’s Meat Monstrosities: From the Bacon Spider to the Cinnabattleship
Harley Morenstein
July 26, 2014
The building is festooned with cartoon-like images of fish, including dorsal fins that poke out of the roof.
Become a Fried Seafood Believer at South Beach Market
Jane & Michael Stern
April 20, 2014

Historical Examples of poke

I've been scared about Dirk ever since; and now he won't go to Poke's!
Ester Ried Yet Speaking
Isabella Alden
He'll be suspicious if we begin to poke about the north wing.
The Inn at the Red Oak
Latta Griswold
Nothing in the world would have induced them to poke their noses out of the window.
The Fortune of the Rougons
Emile Zola
I found a pretty cluster at the foot of a maple stump in Poke Hollow.
The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise
M. E. Hard
If I tell you what I want to, will you promise not to pitch into me, and not to nag and poke fun?
Cap'n Eri
Joseph Crosby Lincoln

British Dictionary definitions for poke

poke

¹

verb

(tr) to jab or prod, as with the elbow, the finger, a stick, etc

(tr) to make (a hole, opening, etc) by or as by poking

(when intr, often foll by at) to thrust (at)

(tr) informal to hit with the fist; punch

(usually foll by in, out, out of, through, etc) to protrude or cause to protrudedon't poke your arm out of the window

(tr) to stir (a fire, pot, etc) by poking

(intr) to meddle or intrude

(intr; often foll by about or around) to search or pry

(intr often foll by along) to loiter, potter, dawdle, etc

(tr) slang (of a man) to have sexual intercourse with

poke fun at to mock or ridicule

poke one's nose into See nose (def. 17)

noun

a jab or prod

short for slowpoke

informal a blow with one's fist; punch

slang sexual intercourse

Word Origin for poke

C14: from Low German and Middle Dutch poken to thrust, prod, strike

poke

²

noun

dialect a pocket or bag

a pig in a poke See pig (def. 9)

Word Origin for poke

C13: from Old Northern French poque, of Germanic origin; related to Old English pocca bag, Old Norse poki pouch, Middle Dutch poke bag; compare poach ²

poke

³

noun

Also called: poke bonnet a woman's bonnet with a brim that projects at the front, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries

the brim itself

Word Origin for poke

C18: from poke 1 (in the sense: to thrust out, project)

poke

⁴

noun

short for pokeweed

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for poke

v.

"to push, prod, thrust," especially with something pointed, c.1300, puken "to poke, nudge," of uncertain origin, perhaps from or related to Middle Dutch poken "to poke" (Dutch beuken), or Middle Low German poken "to stick with a knife" (cf. German pochen "to knock, rap"), both from Proto-Germanic root *puk-, perhaps imitative. Related: Poked; poking. To poke fun "tease" first attested 1840; to poke around "search" is from 1809. To poke along "advance lazily; walk at a leisurely pace" is from 1833.

n.1

"small sack," early 13c., probably from Old North French poque (12c., Old French poche) "purse, poke, purse-net," probably from a Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *puk- (cf. Old English pohha, pocca "bag, pocket," Middle Dutch poke, Old Norse poki "bag, pouch, pocket," dialectal German Pfoch), from PIE root *beu-, an imitative root associated with words for "to swell" (see bull (n.2)).

n.2

"pokeweed; a weed used in medicine and dyeing," colonial American, from native words, possibly a confusion of similar-sounding Native American plant names; from 1630s in English as "tobacco plant," short for uppowoc (1580s), from Algonquian (Virginia) *uppowoc. Later (1708) the word is used in the sense "pokeweed," as a shortened form of puccoon, from Algonquian (Virginia) *puccoon, name of a plant used for dyeing." Native roots for "smoke" and "stain" have been proposed as the origin or origins.

n.3

"an act of poking," 1796, originally pugilistic slang, from poke (v.). Also (1809) the name of a device, like a yoke with a pole, attached to domestic animals such as pigs and sheep to keep them from escaping enclosures. Hence slowpoke, and cf. pokey. Slang sense "act of sexual intercourse" is attested from 1902.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with poke

poke

In addition to the idioms beginning with poke

poke around
poke fun at
poke one's nose into

also see:

make fun of (poke fun at)
pig in a poke
take a poke at

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.