roke
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of roke
First recorded in 1885–90; origin uncertain; perhaps originally dialect (N England) roke, rawk “to scratch, flaw”
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.
"B roke it in nine places," Eugene Roach was saying.
From Time Magazine Archive
"The roke will shift," he said again doggedly.
From Notwithstanding by Cholmondeley, Mary
This simple instrument is a very portable one; and well fitted to the social inclination of meeting in a neighbour’s house; hence the phrase of going a rocking, or with the roke.
From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Burns, Robert
“Arise up, my maidens,Wi’ roke and wi’ fan,How blest had I beenHad I married a man!Arise up, my maidens,Tak’ spear and tak’ sword,Go milk the ewes, Gordon,An’ I will be lord.”
From A Collection of Ballads by Lang, Andrew
It was very dark and a fine rain fell, so that a man could see no further before his eyes than he can at evening through a Norfolk roke in autumn.
From Montezuma's Daughter by Haggard, Henry Rider
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.
