poke
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
baseball
computing
engineering
games
hobbies
lifestyle
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
sports
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.
Inflected forms:
form: pokes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: poking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: poked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: poked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: pokes
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To prod or jab with an object such as a finger or a stick.
pos: verb
examples: Ward showed good pace to beat the advancing Reina to the ball and poke a low finish into the corner.
gloss: To stir up a fire to remove ash or promote burning.
pos: verb
gloss: To rummage; to feel or grope around.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: I poked about in the rubble, trying to find my lost keys.
gloss: To modify the value stored in (a memory address).
pos: verb
tags: dated
transitive
examples: The 200 UDGs may be used either by paging between 10 sets of 20 UDGs or, alternatively, by displaying 96 different characters by poking the system variable CHARS with 256 less than the starting address of your graphics.
If you try to poke a value outside this range into a byte, Basic will beep you with an ILLEGAL QUANTITY error.
gloss: To put a poke (device to prevent leaping or breaking fences) on (an animal).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to poke an ox
I find from their testimony , which was not contradicted , that the placing of such a poke upon such a colt in such a pasture is not considered dangerous, and that farmers are accustomed so to poke their own horses, but that they are not accustomed to put pokes on or 'hamper' horses owned by other persons without the authorization of the owner.
gloss: To thrust at with the horns; to gore.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To notify (another user) of activity on social media or an instant messenger.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: Indeed, when we poke users who normally do not have access to our profiles, they will be able to temporarily see our Basic Info, Work Info, and Education Info.
gloss: To thrust (something) in a particular direction such as the tongue.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To penetrate in sexual intercourse.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
vulgar
examples: Maj. Cloutier commented to Lt. Clemm, "You know what they say about a girl who smokes: If she smokes, she pokes."
He chewed her nipples and clitoris until they bled, and poked her until she could hardly walk. Grandpa never got enough sex […]
No big deal. I poked Ana a bunch of times.
gloss: A prod, jab, or thrust.
pos: noun
gloss: A lazy person; a dawdler.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
examples: The slowness of this stupid poke tortures me to death.
To the uninitiated he looked like a slow old poke; but his string would lengthen out in a most mysterious way , and it was the height of our ambition to set as much and as clean a proof as old John.
I never saw such an old poke. You come up here and expect me to do some things for you, and then you stand around as though you were made of bone!
The three laugh at him for a slow old poke and go on to their pleasure.
Old Fred is the slowest old poke, isn't he? Suppose I try, Paul.
gloss: A stupid or uninteresting person.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
examples: I see you shaking your head at me, mother, and reminding me of 'That mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me;' but I don't believe I go on so; if I have nothing to say I keep still, and you'd better be a stupid poke, which I often feel myself, than waste the time with such trash.
She was only sixteen, and he was perfectly splendid, and she has plenty of money, and every one talked about it; and when she went anywhere, people looked, you know, and she liked it; but her papa is an old poke, so he's sent them all away. It's too bad, for she was the jolliest thing I ever knew .
I think you are all reasonably well aware that the common picture of the surveying and mapping profession is proabably best exemplified at the present time by the old poke who is out with a rickety old transit, wearing old ragged clothes.
"Oh, you old poke, you! You think nobody can be grown up but yourself. I really believe they all think I'm a great deal older than I am, and I just hope you won't go and tell them I am not. "Now, will you?"
“That's what you're going to rob?” she asked Cole. “Yep.” He viewed the scene with a hand shading his eyes, then grinned at Billy. “Only a driver and one old poke riding shotgun. You'd think they'd have learned better by now."
gloss: An old, worn-out horse.
pos: noun
examples: It was feared the dear old poke I had been riding could not keep up with the rest on this long day's journey: so I had "the cook's horse," who did not understand my method of pulling my dear old beast's head from the edge of the ravine gently with my bridle.
Probably summer residents, and this old poke won't move out of a walk, and I've no whip.
Yes, mother, but my horse is such an old poke I was nowhere in the race.
It's not the helo's fault, even if it is clunkier than a stumblebum old poke of a plow horse—bless its rotors.
gloss: A device to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences, consisting of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward.
pos: noun
tags: US
examples: I find from their testimony , which was not contradicted , that the placing of such a poke upon such a colt in such a pasture is not considered dangerous, and that farmers are accustomed so to poke their own horses, but that they are not accustomed to put pokes on or 'hamper' horses owned by other persons without the authorization of the owner.
This yoke or poke will prevent any horse from scaling a fence, if well made.
gloss: The storage of a value in a memory address, typically to modify the behaviour of a program or to cheat at a video game.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: […] everywhere you see listings festooned with Goto statements and peppered with peeks and pokes.
One of the major limitations is that the Commodore 64 does not easily support auto-repeat (it must be turned on by a poke instruction from BASIC).
Perhaps all those super hackers who so regularly produce infinite lives etc. could produce pokes to be used by 128K users.
gloss: A notification sent to get another user's attention on social media or an instant messenger.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: It could be described as a poke, but not a friendly one. For those who have not yet succumbed to Facebook, the latest craze on the internet, a ‘poke’ is an electronic greeting sent, for example, to an old friend from university.
gloss: A poke bonnet.
pos: noun
examples: Well then, I declare, I'd rather see Miss Lawton in that old poke – old as it is! –than in the finest new bonnet the Squire's lady ever wore.
gloss: A hit, especially an extra base hit.
pos: noun
tags: slang
Derived words: better than a poke in the eye
better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick
better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick
blow poke
gunpoke
killer poke
nose poke
slow poke
slowpoke
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: uitsteek
lang: Finnish
word: tökätä
lang: Māori
word: whātero
lang: Norwegian
word: geipe