pokey

American  

[poh-kee] / ˈpoʊ ki /

noun

Slang.

plural

pokeys

1. Usually the pokey a jail.

   They put him in the pokey for carrying a concealed weapon.

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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.

Etymology

Origin of pokey

First recorded in 1915–20; origin uncertain; possibly a variant of pogey ( def. )

Example Sentences

Like the movie, whose commercial and critical success suggests people approve, it’s pokey and self-serious and almost entirely devoid of humor.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 17, 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

So they went along in their pokey fashion, the weirdly shaped Gremlin making rolling stops at traffic signs and the Eldorado, a little bit later, doing the same.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides