poke
UK /pəʊk/ · US /poʊk/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms pokes poking poked
- verb To prod or jab with an object such as a finger or a stick.
- verb To stir up a fire to remove ash or promote burning.
- verb (figuratively) To rummage; to feel or grope around. “I poked about in the rubble, trying to find my lost keys.”
- verb (transitive, computing, dated) To modify the value stored in (a memory address).
- verb (transitive) To put a poke (device to prevent leaping or breaking fences) on (an animal). “to poke an ox”
- verb (transitive) To thrust at with the horns; to gore.
- verb (transitive, informal, social media) To notify (another user) of activity on social media or an instant messenger.
- verb (transitive) To thrust (something) in a particular direction such as the tongue.
- noun A prod, jab, or thrust.
- noun (US, slang) A lazy person; a dawdler.
- noun (US, slang) A stupid or uninteresting person.
- noun An old, worn-out horse.
- noun (US) A device to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences, consisting of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward.
- noun (computing, dated) The storage of a value in a memory address, typically to modify the behaviour of a program or to cheat at a video game.
- noun (informal, social media) A notification sent to get another user's attention on social media or an instant messenger.
- noun A poke bonnet.
- noun (Appalachia and Southern US, otherwise archaic) A sack or bag, especially a paper bag. “poke of reefer”
- noun A long, wide sleeve.
- noun (Scotland and Northern Ireland) An ice cream cone.
- noun (Scotland and Northern Ireland) A bag of chips.
Synonyms
fumble glaum root feel around scrabble fish forage scramble grabble grope grubble drill nail pound Formal terms bed coit coitize dight enjoy pigeon berry garget scoke Phytolacca americana dawdler drone laggard lagger trailer sack
Etymology
From Middle English poken, perhaps from Middle Dutch poken or Middle Low German poken, both from Proto-West Germanic *pukōn or similar, which is itself of uncertain origin, but may be from an imitative Proto-Germanic root *puk-. Doublet of poach.
Compare Nordic cognates Swedish påka (“to poke, muck with a stick”), påk (“club, limb; dagger”), pykel (“small poker”), dialectal Norwegian pauka (“to walk stomping, etc”), pauk (“weak, slow person”). Central European noun-cognates refer to “dagger, bad knife, poker (for a fireplace)”, with analog verbs. To a Proto-Germanic *pauk-, *puk-, meanig, “to stick, muck with a stick”.
From Middle English poke, from Anglo-Norman poke (whence pocket), from Frankish *poka. More at pocket. Doublet of pouch. First attested in the early 13th c.
Clipping of pocan (“pokeweed”) or directly borrowed from Powhatan pocan. See pocan for more.
Borrowed from Hawaiian poke (literally “to cut crosswise into pieces”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A large North American herb of the genus Phytolacca (P. decandra), bearing dark purple juicy berries; --called also garget, pigeon berry, pocan, and pokeweed. The root and berries have emetic and purgative properties, and are used in medicine. The young shoots are sometimes eaten as a substitute for asparagus, and the berries are said to be used in Europe to color wine.
- noun A bag; a sack; a pocket. "He drew a dial from his poke." Shak.
- noun A long, wide sleeve; --called also poke sleeve. To boy a pig a poke (that is, in a bag), to buy a thing without knowledge or examination of it. Camden.
- verb To thrust or push against or into with anything pointed; hence, to stir up; to excite; as, to poke a fire.
Etymology [AS. poca, poha, pohha; akin to Icel. poki, OD. poke, and perh. to E. pock; cf. also Gael.poca, and OF. poque. Cf. Pock, Pocket, Pouch.]
Etymology [Cf. LG. poken to prick, pierce, thrust, pok a dagger, knife, D. pook, G. pocken to beat, also Ir. poc a blow, Gael. puc to push.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “poke”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details