pokey
Americannoun
-
pokeys
plural
Usage
What does pokey mean? Pokey is a slang term for jail. It’s typically used with the article the, as in Sal got arrested and spent a night in the pokey. Pokey can also be used to describe someone or something that moves slowly. This sense of word is intended to be negative or insulting. Less commonly, it can be used as an adjective meaning small and cramped, as in There’s no way we can have a party in this pokey little apartment. Pokey can also be spelled poky. Example: If it were up to me, all these pokey drivers would spend a night in the pokey—the pokier the cell the better.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pokey
First recorded in 1915–20; origin uncertain; possibly a variant of pogey ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She’s a big personality, chatty, colorfully dressed, a ray of sunshine, easily distracted, insanely friendly; she offers a killer a cookie even as he’s being packed off to the pokey.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
Family and adult-only fun include roller disco night and open skate hours with the hokey pokey, limbo and partner skate events.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
It opens with an unfunny protracted bit in which Barry, who’s late for work, orders a sandwich from a pokey server.
From New York Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
According to the lawyers working on behalf of Dominion, Fox's lawyers have been pokey when it comes to turning over evidence in a timely fashion for the ongoing defamation case.
From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2023
When the hokey pokey is done, I slip out to the back patio to see if Ray is around and if he got anything off Mom’s run-over phone.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
II: Body Language In 17th century England, the reigning Stuarts took increasingly to popping their political foes into the Tower of London and other pokeys, without bothering much with prosecutions or convictions.
From Time Magazine Archive
The peaked shoes, chained to the knee, were not more ridiculous than the deep, wide sleeves commonly called pokeys, which were shaped like a bagpipe and were worn by all classes.
From The Evolution of Fashion by Florence Mary Gardiner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
