poke.
To prod or jab with an object such as a finger or a stick.
Meaning & usage
To prod or jab with an object such as a finger or a stick.
To stir up a fire to remove ash or promote burning.
To rummage; to feel or grope around.
I poked about in the rubble, trying to find my lost keys.
To modify the value stored in (a memory address).
To put a poke (device to prevent leaping or breaking fences) on (an animal).
to poke an ox
To thrust at with the horns; to gore.
To notify (another user) of activity on social media or an instant messenger.
To thrust (something) in a particular direction such as the tongue.
To penetrate in sexual intercourse.
Where this word comes from
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”.
A prod, jab, or thrust.
A lazy person; a dawdler.
A stupid or uninteresting person.
An old, worn-out horse.
A device to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences, consisting of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward.
The storage of a value in a memory address, typically to modify the behaviour of a program or to cheat at a video game.
A notification sent to get another user's attention on social media or an instant messenger.
A poke bonnet.
A hit, especially an extra base hit.
Where this word comes from
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”.
A sack or bag, especially a paper bag.
poke of reefer
A long, wide sleeve.
An ice cream cone.
A bag of chips.
Where this word comes from
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.
Pokeweed, and its berries.
Where this word comes from
Clipping of pocan (“pokeweed”) or directly borrowed from Powhatan pocan. See pocan for more.
Slices or cubes of raw fish or other raw seafood, mixed with sesame oil, seaweed, sea salt, herbs, spices, or other flavorful ingredients.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Hawaiian poke (literally “to cut crosswise into pieces”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.