stoke

¹ American  

[stohk] / stoʊk /

verb (used with object)

stokes, present (3rd person singular) stoked, past participle, past stoking present participle

1. to poke, stir up, and feed (a fire).

2. to tend the fire of (a furnace, especially one used with a boiler to generate steam for an engine); supply with fuel.

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verb (used without object)

stokes, present (3rd person singular) stoked, past participle, past stoking present participle

1. to shake up the coals of a fire.

2. to tend a fire or furnace.

stoke ² American  

[stohk] / stoʊk /

noun

Physics.

1. a unit of kinematic viscosity, equal to the viscosity of a fluid in poises divided by the density of the fluid in grams per cubic centimeter.

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stoke British  

/ stəʊk /

verb

1. to feed, stir, and tend (a fire, furnace, etc)

2. (tr) to tend the furnace of; act as a stoker for

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• stoking
  present
• stoked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stoke
  simple
• stokes
  simple
• have stoked
  perfect
• has stoked
  perfect
• am stoking
  progressive
• are stoking
  progressive
• is stoking
  progressive
• have been stoking
  perfect progressive
• has been stoking
  perfect progressive

Past

• stoked
  simple
• had stoked
  perfect
• was stoking
  progressive
• were stoking
  progressive
• had been stoking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stoke
  simple
• will have stoked
  perfect
• will be stoking
  progressive
• will have been stoking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of stoke¹

1675–85; < Dutch stoken to feed or stock a fire; see stock

Origin of stoke²

After Sir G. Stokes

Explanation

To stoke is to poke a fire and fuel it so that it burns higher. Stoke can also mean "incite" — a principal's impassive silence in the face of requests for more tater tots might stoke the flames of student anger. When a surfer says, "I am so stoked," it means she is excited — the fire of enthusiasm is burning hotter. It's interesting to reflect on how many words in our language have to do with the tending of fires, an activity that has become much less common in recent human history.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stoke stokes stoked stoking

They are expected to provide clarity and tamp down unwarranted panic, not stoke conspiracy theories.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

If you fantasize about retiring abroad, stories of blissful expats will only stoke your desire.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

The studio "is famously a very, very quiet company", which has only served to stoke the hype, Young said.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

Others see his comments as grandstanding meant to stoke investor excitement for what’s being sold as a godlike technology.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026

He watched his chance and stooped close beside Heqet on the pretext of helping him stoke an oven.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

“Geopolitical tension should drive safe-haven buying, but when it spikes oil, it stokes inflation, which pushes the Fed to tighten — and that’s gold’s kryptonite,” he said, referring to gold’s weakness.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026

A pattern emerges: The crowd suspects a problem, then Pangram validates the suspicion, stokes the mob, and sells the solution.

From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2026

The fight for new capital saps investment from other sectors, while meeting increasingly grandiose ambitions requires more computing power, which in turn demands more energy, which stokes energy price increases, and so on.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

Stagflation—when economic growth stalls and inflation accelerates—is a growing concern in South Korea, as the fallout from the war stokes upside risks to prices and downside risks to growth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

Bree stokes the small fire and places more pots of tea on the iron rack.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

Krishna at Barclays says that historically low correlations within the S&P 500 sectors suggest idiosyncratic earnings, while noting concentration changes stoked volatility.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

Trading in French technology group 2CRSi has been suspended on the Paris stocks exchange “until further notice,” after a short-seller report stoked panic among investors.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 19, 2026

It was a testament to an intimacy fueled by shared experience, the kind stoked both by live music and watercooler television at its best.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

Since the Middle East conflict began in late February, gold has fallen more than 20% as concerns over high energy prices and supply-chain disruptions stoked expectations of higher interest rates, weighing on the non-interest-bearing metal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

Hale soon went bankrupt—an embittering failure that only stoked the furnace of his ambition.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

In both cases, we scrambled improvisationally, after the fact, stoking fear and confusion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

"I will not in any way lend a hand to stoking this tension," Tusk told reporters.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

Last week, Salesforce announced the acquisition of customer-agent company Fin for roughly $3.6 billion, further stoking investor discontent.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

Not long after, AI took off, stoking demand for a particular memory chip well-suited for use in computers that train and query popular artificial-intelligence models.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

After three years of pumping the bellows and stoking the furnace, I said to the master, “When do I learn to blow glass?”

From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz

Related Words

• feed
• stir