| 释义 |
verb pəʊkpoʊk 1with object Jab or prod (someone or something) with one's finger or a sharp object. he poked Benny in the ribs and pointed no object they sniffed, felt, and poked at everything they bought Example sentencesExamples - I grinned and stepped back slightly, but was pushed further as he poked me with the stick.
- It is poked repeatedly with a stick until it is absolutely livid.
- Abi was taken to an admissions room, where she was poked and prodded and monitored by various midwives and doctors.
- Sometimes, you see a hornet's nest, and some wise part of you knows that you shouldn't go poking it with a stick.
- But I think that just poking him with a stick and expecting him to leap to his feet and resume his journey as if no time had passed would serve only to hasten his final death throes.
- It needles you, it shoves, it pokes you in the side - not hard, but hard enough to make you yelp.
- The use of the pejorative ‘insidious’ is a little unnecessary, but I'm not one who should poke people with sticks for using flowery language.
- If people are poked with a sharp enough stick, like the threat of a large-scale war, they'll respond.
- She tries poking them with a stick to get them down and then throwing a rock.
- Don't poke me or prod me when you are talking to me.
- We rode the subway out to the Bronx Zoo, and joined the hordes strolling around poking the animals with sticks.
- She believed that she got the lead poisoning when a sharp pencil was poked into her cheek.
- They were dreadful sleepers, but I'm sure that was because I was prodding and poking them all the time!
- We poked it with a stick and established that the wasps had moved out.
- It was a real ‘crikey’ moment, and I wanted wrestle it, or at least poke it with a stick, but nobody had a camera so there was no point.
- We've been poking him with a sharp stick, and if you do that long enough, you have to either shoot the dog or get bit.
- Sometimes the children can be seen poking them with sticks.
- It only seemed like I had been asleep for two minutes when I was poked at and I nearly jumped out of my skin before I realized our car ride was over.
- Have you ever experienced the sensation of falling into a deep sleep, only to have someone poke your ears with sharp needles?
- That is followed by the curious urge to poke it with a stick.
Synonyms prod, jab, dig, nudge, tap, butt, ram, shove, punch, prick, jolt thrust, stab, push, plunge, stick, insert, drive, lunge - 1.1 Prod and stir (a fire) with a poker to make it burn more fiercely.
she drew the curtains then poked the fire into a blaze Example sentencesExamples - She poked at the fire causing it to flare up and throw more shadows across their faces.
- From 1946 onwards, I have continuously poked fires with the help of various materials.
- She again sat beside the fire, poking at its dead embers with a fallen green tree branch.
- This morning we are sitting in my friend's big livingroom, poking at the fire in the big fireplace.
- After a while I rose and poked a few more sticks into the fire.
- He poked the partially burned wood a few times with a stick and flames rose and crackled as they burned brighter.
- They were seated in a square surrounding the flickering embers, and every now and then somebody would poke the fire to keep it burning.
- The page stirred from his pallet on the hearth and poked the fire back to life, then padded over, yawning, with a candle.
- Then I went back to the clearing, where Solastian was absently poking at the fire and completely oblivious to everything else.
- Calomar had opened the door to the wood burning stove, and was poking at the fire with a metal poker he had found.
- Matt was silent as he continued to poke at the fire, every so often looking up from the flames to gaze at the lake's distant shore.
- The girl threw a log on the fire, and poked the embers into flames.
- One person, the leader, judging by the odd tufts of fur in random spots on his cloak, poked at the fire with his staff.
- Then someone poked at the fire and it flared up, illuminating the room.
- After walking for a while they found a wizard sitting in a small clearing poking at a fire with a stick.
- With an exasperated sigh, she stood and sat by the fire, poking the embers absent-mindedly with a stick.
- Kumma was poking at the fire with a stick, his eyes flickering the blaze.
- He watched her dead-white face for a while, and then went to poke at the fire some more.
- Jun zoned out it seemed, she was poking at the fire.
- He poked at the fire with a stick pushing unburned dung cakes into the centre.
- 1.2 Make (a hole) in something by prodding or jabbing at it.
don't forget to poke holes in the dough to allow steam to escape Example sentencesExamples - You must poke very small holes though your liner so that aerobic conditions are not created in the soil.
- I bought pie plates and string, grabbed a hammer and nail, and began poking holes and stringing pie plates.
- There were four large sliding doors in the house and beyond them a shrine. I used to be scolded for poking holes in the sliding doors.
- Poke holes in the figs and repeat this step one more time.
- Alternatively, poke holes in the can and throw it out attached to a length of string - you'll need to retrieve it to keep poking more holes in it as the contents disappear.
- Trent and I had just sneaked into the storage closet when his gaze drifted to the snare drum, and before I knew it, he started poking holes into it.
- She poked a few more holes in the belt and then cinched it around her waist.
- Even six thousand pounds of ballast wasn't enough to sink it, so we had to try to de-gas it by poking holes in it, and eventually it sank.
- A dibble was an instrument for poking holes in the ground for planting.
- The whole week went real smooth, except for one little incident where I kind of poked a hole in one of the pictures.
- One could go on poking holes, but the improbabilities are legion.
- For those who are curious, the researchers blew up the eggshells by poking holes in the top and the bottom, emptying them of egg, and filling them with hydrogen gas instead.
- The great emotional issue for most oil producing states is upstream investment - the actual poking of holes in the ground.
- It growled at him and latched its teeth onto the windshield, the very tips of its fangs breaching the meager shield and poking holes in the glass.
- You've poked more holes into what's left of my ship, and I don't want to wait around here for whoever may come looking.
- ‘We use it to decide what to do as far as poking holes in the ground,’ says Davis.
- 1.3vulgar slang (of a man) have sexual intercourse with (a woman).
2with object and adverbial of direction Thrust (something, such as one's head) in a particular direction. I poked my head around the door to see what was going on Example sentencesExamples - Akos poked his great shaggy head around the frame and looked at her.
- Mr. Mbewe slides the stick shift into gear then rests his left hand on the wheel, poking a casual right elbow out of the window.
- I make almost no noise as I stumble down the hallway but still Jomei opens his door and pokes a sleepy orange head out, ‘Where are you going?’
- The doctor, a balding man with a pitted red nose, poked his head around the doorframe.
- At the sound of his rumbling voice, Gualtero poked his tousled brown head out of the shadows.
- He just poked out his tongue from behind his helmet as he sent the puck back to the centre.
- The traveller is shown poking his head and right arm through a boundary of stars enclosing this everyday world and reaching out to a universe of wonders beyond.
- Follow this course in life and your nose'll never poke itself beyond a book.
- The woman steps up to the door, pokes her head in and asks: ‘Is this the 307 bus?’
- That was easily enough to poke one's head into the water.
- The door slid open with a familiar creak, an untidy head poking itself through, silhouetted against the warm glow of the lamps outside.
- Delia quickly caught their senile cat, Picasso, as he was poking his fat little head out.
- The goat stands on his hind legs, embraces the glass, and pokes his long pointed tongue into the foam.
- A small, shriveled head poked itself out from the miniature doorway and peered at her.
- Finally, the door creaked over and my father poked his skinny, bony face into the room.
- A man with a tonsure, much like the friars of old, poked his awkwardly shaped head out of the opening.
- 2.1no object, with adverbial Protrude and be visible.
she had wisps of grey hair poking out from under her bonnet Example sentencesExamples - A widow of several years, she wears a green, yellow and orange headscarf, from which black and grey curls poke out.
- My father's short reddish brown hair was poking out from beneath his hat, and my mother's dark hair wasn't far from being out of order as well.
- With such visible history, the sun-blackened ruins poking out from the undergrowth and overgrowth, Nevis is fun to explore.
- Pausing, he scratched a tuft of vibrant red hair poking from beneath his cap.
- His shirt was open to the second button; a few curly hairs poked through.
- I can recall how O looked as if it were yesterday: lying next to me, his shirt slightly undone, the top of his chest hair poking out, huge grin on his face.
- One had a large backwards blue cap on his head, messy black hair poking out from underneath.
- We cut to the next scene, where he is now under a large mound of sand, now with only the top of his head visible, poking through the side of the mound.
- The shock of black hair poking from the top of his white OU visor was wet and mussed from a sideline celebration shower.
- Her fang teeth were starting to extend, poking down so they just visible in her open mouth, and her hands gripped the arms of the chair.
- Small bits of dark brown hair poked out from underneath his hat.
- When I awoke, I was covered in strange purple hairs that poked out through my clothes and made a sound only dogs could hear.
- Ben watched her as she worked, wisps of her hair falling about her face and her tongue just visibly poking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.
- Tufts of springy white hair poked up from the center of the crown.
- There was a big stick poking out of one of the trashcans.
- We must have walked for about an hour, and were on the point of turning round and returning to the caravan, when we spotted a stick poking out of the water, about twenty yards offshore.
- Wiry white and grey hairs poked out of his thick, flabby ears and his blue eyes were shoved deep into this rough-skinned face.
- Leonard was a very tall young man, with bright blonde hair poking out from under his tattered cowboy hat.
- White hair poked out from under his cap and a pipe was clenched between his teeth.
- Dark brown hair poked out around the edge of his white baseball cap.
Synonyms stick out, jut out, stand out, protrude, project, extend, loom rare protuberate
noun pəʊkpoʊk 1An act of poking someone or something. Example sentencesExamples - I liked the fact that it came across as an affectionate poke, and the fact that Garth looked like a cross between one of my friends and that bloke in Can who had the big sidies.
- With appropriate physical gentleness, have a poke and a prod and check out the territory.
- A poke in his side however caught his attention and he looked down to a frowning Shi who had a scolding look on her face.
- We were in the air about 45 minutes when I felt a poke in the ribs and turned to find my row-mate prodding me with his rolled-up reading material.
- I laughed and gave him one last poke before I let go.
- I gave the house sale a good poke and prod today and it sounds as if the urgency of our situation has got through.
- On the one hand, the elections this month gave them a poke in the eye.
- Delia felt a poke and immediately turned to her father, who was holding a piece of toast out for her.
- Her finger moved down my belly ending with a poke as she slowly pulled away backwards, turned and left me in my waking dream.
- Her mom gave her a poke and gestured to the table.
- Lesley Vainikolo also left the Belle Vue battleground early but his double vision from a poke in the eye will not keep him out of this Friday's visit to The Shay to take on Halifax.
- He sighed, then sneezed as an unlucky poke of the stick in the fire sent a cloud of smoke into his face.
- Paige was startled out of his musings by a particularly hard poke to his back.
- They're posh girls who talk like lads down the boozer about boobs and bums and can't resist giving them a poke and a prod in a giggly, sapphic way - all very private school changing rooms.
- And he delivers this brilliant poke in the collective eye of manipulative, one-sided documentary makers everywhere.
- I did not care for the pokes, prods, or interrogation I felt was imminent.
- Consumer loyalty is rewarded with a poke in the eye.
- After a few prods and pokes, he gave an injection for the pain, sat at his desk, lifted the phone and ordered the air ambulance.
- But it was just a question of getting on with it with pokes and prods.
- The main purpose of my wee trip was to see my Uncle John and give him a poke and prod prior to his heart surgery.
Synonyms prod, jab, dig, elbow, nudge, tap, butt thrust, push, jab, shove, plunge, insertion - 1.1vulgar slang An act of sexual intercourse.
2a poke round/aroundinformal A look or search around a place. his mother comes into his room sometimes and has a poke round 3British informal mass noun Power or acceleration in a car. I expect you'd prefer something with a bit more poke Example sentencesExamples - Well, the petrol version will get you from to 60 in about two hours, so if you want any poke at all, and surely that's the reason why you're buying a BMW, you have to go for the diesel.
- With plenty of poke, fluid handling and more interior space than an airport terminal, the Mondeo swallows my two sprogs and all their concomitant mess with ease.
- Breakaway is sharper on the exit of a bend but that has as much to with extra poke and grippier tyres as it does with the suspension.
- Yes it provides a bit of poke, but it would be nice if this 1.6l engine could provide more than its quoted 95PS.
- There is bags of power from way down the rev range and loads of poke in the middle where it is needed for safe overtaking.
- It is compact, though, and still looks terrific, and the new version has a lot of poke.
4A woman's bonnet with a projecting brim or front, popular especially in the early 19th century. Example sentencesExamples - A Pennsylvania Amish in a poke bonnet goes next, happy as a bug.
Phrases be better than a poke in the eye (with a sharp stick) humorous Be welcome or pleasing. I got a tax rebate—not a huge amount but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick Example sentencesExamples - He's better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
- Getting hold of that is certainly better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
- Not a huge amount but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
this film pokes fun at Stalinism and the army which supported it Example sentencesExamples - My feelings of anger and disgust, but even stronger emptiness, stopped me from poking fun at all my usual subjects.
- This is a film that pokes fun at itself and doesn't take itself too seriously.
- My middle name smacks of big slobbery dog jokes and yet my last name was the one kids poked fun at in school.
- What fun it must have been for the young film-maker to poke fun at the older formula films, and their songs!
- Laurel has a remarkable ability to poke fun at whatever she's insecure about.
- A send-up should be smarter than the films it pokes fun at, but that isn't the case here.
- It poked fun at all the seriousness that reality TV has become, and it made stereotypical reality TV scenes into comedic segments.
- I had been out to since sixth grade, not to my family of course, and had had my share of being teased and poked fun at but a few words dropped here and there and it was settled fast.
- One recent editorial cartoon pokes fun at just how widespread that practice has become.
- Did I fancy writing a series of short articles poking fun at all the horrendous food that nobody ate any more?
Synonyms mock, make fun of, laugh at, make jokes about, ridicule, jeer at, sneer at, deride, treat with contempt, treat contemptuously, scorn, laugh to scorn, scoff at, pillory, be sarcastic about, satirize, lampoon, burlesque, parody, tease, taunt, rag, make a monkey of, chaff, jibe at
informal Take an intrusive interest in. it's not like you to poke your nose into areas that don't concern you Example sentencesExamples - He had poked his nose into all her private affairs from the start, so why shouldn't she return the compliment?
- You can poke your nose into other people's business, usually without getting it punched.
- Also we tend not to get involved in some of the ‘intra-blog battles’ that rage across the web but they can be illuminating sometimes and are often fun to poke your nose into now and then.
- I don't poke my nose into other people's business.
- Assuming that my regular schoolwork doesn't kill me, I'll see what I can poke my nose into as far as mysterious magical mischief makers go.
- It's also possible to go round the old manor house, to poke your nose into all the barns and have a look at the old farm equipment.
- I could have trammed up to the river or down to the beach, but both seemed a little too far away today, so I wandered aimlessly in semi-suburbia, poking my nose into odd shops and leaving without buying anything.
- If we don't help, we're sitting by, being selfish; if we help too much, we're poking our nose into somebody else's business.
- Oddly enough, though, he has something in common with the foreigner who owns much of the British media - he pokes his nose into the country's politics from thousands of miles away!
- At home he has always poked his nose into everything that was going on and we are all mad about him
Synonyms pry into, interfere in, nose around in, intrude on, butt into, meddle with, tamper with
1informal Hit or punch someone. Example sentencesExamples - Plus, there are these guys I had a bit of an altercation with last week who'd love to take a poke at me, and I ain't about to help them out.
- Greengrass came barreling into second like a football blocker this time and I came up thinking I might as well take a poke at him.
- There are advantages and disadvantages to this; the advantage is that, done in a crowded situation, you don't have to be the immediate suspect if you take a poke at someone whose back is turned.
- But, like his twin before, he too took a poke at me, which just barely missed as I ducked behind mom, who was frowning in disapproval.
- 1.1Criticize someone.
he took a poke at the tournament's sponsors, a cigarette company Example sentencesExamples - Cruelty to Intel now seems to be socially-acceptable, while taking a poke at AMD is right up there with fox hunting and baby seal clubbing.
- Here it was, Thursday, the fourth day I've had coffee with these fellows, and it's the first time I hear him take a poke at Ivan.
- He also took a poke at Panday's popular statement of giving his blood, sweat and tears to build the UNC.
- She shows depth on the inspirational ‘Get Up Again,’ and the grown-up ‘Our Child,’ and takes a poke at her detractors on ‘You Will Never.’
- And of course I couldn't resist taking a poke at Justice Moore and his Ten Commandments monument.
- Assuming everything goes as planned and Kerry and Edwards both show up for it, he has a chance to take a poke at Kerry.
Phrasal Verbs Look around a place, typically in search of something. she poked about in the cupboard for a minute or two Example sentencesExamples - Now we take this phenomenon for granted, but back in those early days, poking around inside a remote computer was heady business.
- It doesn't take much poking around the techie Web sites to find people dreaming hard about physical immortality.
- Is it really so bad that you'd go to the middle of Death Valley in order to not have studio suits poking around your set?
- Vittorio spies on Frank as he pokes around the parlor, searching for a hidden compartment.
- They don't like people poking around in their business.
- I'd spent much of the day poking around the village - my young cousin had found a bizarre rusty Victorian-style hook in the garden which had set me to thinking.
- I roll over and hear our daughter poking around the house in search of dyed eggs.
- He and Hayden were poking around a monsoon drain on Number Thirteen, searching for Hayden's errant drive.
- Ramsey said search teams looked in burrows and sometimes poked around with sticks.
- But he wasn't convinced and after a bit of poking around said he thought it was more likely to be osteoarthritis, arguing that my hip joints may have simply worn out.
- We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.
- We're still poking around to see what prompted Sherry's change of heart.
- But being the smart, sassy psychology student Ashton now is, he starts poking around, and soon people start dying.
- They rummaged rubbish heaps and poked around stacks of dried straw that lay against one part of the fence.
- Believe me, we scoured the countryside and poked around in every old cabin and mining shack we could locate.
- I sighed and poked about in the bushes, searching for some sort of knob or button that might turn on the sprinklers.
- So while southern softies take their dogs for a stroll in the park, northern divers are poking about the wrecks of munitions ships in 40m, in search of unstable explosives for the barbecue.
- So if you're still poking around the beach in rolled-up trousers and a floppy hat, wishing you could get out to a reading or something, well, you can.
- So I was poking around the Chronicle's annual survey of endowments.
- This still doesn't guarantee a clean sweep though, especially if I start poking around those uncharted corners of the web.
Synonyms search, hunt, rummage, rummage around, forage, scrabble, grub, root about, root around, scavenge, fish about, fish around, rake around, feel around, grope around, nose around, ferret, ferret about, ferret around
Origin Middle English: origin uncertain; compare with Middle Dutch and Middle Low German poken, of unknown ultimate origin. The noun dates from the late 18th century. pig from Old English: The word pig appears in Old English only once, the usual word being swine. In the Middle Ages pig at first meant specifically ‘a young pig’, as it still does in North America. Observations such as pigs might fly had a 17th-century parallel in pigs fly with their tails forward. An early user of the modern form was Lewis Carroll in 1865 in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: ‘ “I've a right to think,” said Alice sharply…“Just about as much right,” said the Duchess, “as pigs have to fly.” ’ In a pig in a poke, poke (Middle English) means ‘a small sack or bag’, now found mainly in Scottish English. The British phrase to make a pig's ear out of, ‘to handle ineptly’, probably derives from the proverb you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, recorded from the 16th century. In the children's game pig (or piggy) in the middle, first recorded in the Folk-Lore Journal of 1887, two people throw a ball to each other while a third tries to intercept it. This is behind the use of pig in the middle for a person who is in an awkward situation between two others. Piggyback has been around since the mid 16th century, but the origin of the expression has been lost. Early forms tend to be something like ‘pick-a-pack’ which seems to have been changed by folk etymology to the form we now have. See also hog
Rhymes awoke, bespoke, bloke, broke, choke, cloak, Coke, convoke, croak, evoke, folk, invoke, joke, Koch, moke, oak, okey-doke, provoke, revoke, roque, smoke, soak, soke, spoke, stoke, stony-broke (US stone-broke), stroke, toke, toque, woke, yoke, yolk noun pəʊkpoʊk Scottish 1A bag or small sack. he fished out a poke of crisps from under the counter Example sentencesExamples - More exotic Scots words would include stoorsooker pokes, for vacuum cleaner bags and tea-pokies for tea bags.
- 1.1North American informal A purse or wallet.
his wallet's half out of his pocket—it comes to me that I might as well lift his poke
Origin Middle English: from Old Northern French poke, variant of Old French poche 'pocket'. Compare with pouch. noun pəʊkpoʊk 1 another term for pokeweed 2A North American plant of the lily family with a poisonous black rhizome and tall sprays of yellow-green flowers. Veratrum viride, family Liliaceae
Origin Early 18th century: from Algonquian poughkone (see puccoon). noun pəʊˈkeɪˌpoʊˈkeɪ mass nounA Hawaiian dish of marinated raw fish or seafood, often served over rice. a buffet full of Hawaiian favourites like fresh poke as modifier a wide range of poke bowls
Origin Hawaiian, literally ‘a slice’. verbpōkpoʊk 1with object Jab or prod (someone or something), especially with one's finger. he poked Benny in the ribs and pointed no object they sniffed, felt, and poked at everything they bought Example sentencesExamples - Sometimes, you see a hornet's nest, and some wise part of you knows that you shouldn't go poking it with a stick.
- They were dreadful sleepers, but I'm sure that was because I was prodding and poking them all the time!
- She tries poking them with a stick to get them down and then throwing a rock.
- It only seemed like I had been asleep for two minutes when I was poked at and I nearly jumped out of my skin before I realized our car ride was over.
- That is followed by the curious urge to poke it with a stick.
- It was a real ‘crikey’ moment, and I wanted wrestle it, or at least poke it with a stick, but nobody had a camera so there was no point.
- It needles you, it shoves, it pokes you in the side - not hard, but hard enough to make you yelp.
- We've been poking him with a sharp stick, and if you do that long enough, you have to either shoot the dog or get bit.
- She believed that she got the lead poisoning when a sharp pencil was poked into her cheek.
- Have you ever experienced the sensation of falling into a deep sleep, only to have someone poke your ears with sharp needles?
- We poked it with a stick and established that the wasps had moved out.
- I grinned and stepped back slightly, but was pushed further as he poked me with the stick.
- Abi was taken to an admissions room, where she was poked and prodded and monitored by various midwives and doctors.
- It is poked repeatedly with a stick until it is absolutely livid.
- We rode the subway out to the Bronx Zoo, and joined the hordes strolling around poking the animals with sticks.
- Sometimes the children can be seen poking them with sticks.
- Don't poke me or prod me when you are talking to me.
- If people are poked with a sharp enough stick, like the threat of a large-scale war, they'll respond.
- The use of the pejorative ‘insidious’ is a little unnecessary, but I'm not one who should poke people with sticks for using flowery language.
- But I think that just poking him with a stick and expecting him to leap to his feet and resume his journey as if no time had passed would serve only to hasten his final death throes.
Synonyms prod, jab, dig, nudge, tap, butt, ram, shove, punch, prick, jolt - 1.1 Prod and stir (a fire) with a poker to make it burn more fiercely.
Example sentencesExamples - He watched her dead-white face for a while, and then went to poke at the fire some more.
- After walking for a while they found a wizard sitting in a small clearing poking at a fire with a stick.
- With an exasperated sigh, she stood and sat by the fire, poking the embers absent-mindedly with a stick.
- Kumma was poking at the fire with a stick, his eyes flickering the blaze.
- She poked at the fire causing it to flare up and throw more shadows across their faces.
- He poked at the fire with a stick pushing unburned dung cakes into the centre.
- This morning we are sitting in my friend's big livingroom, poking at the fire in the big fireplace.
- Jun zoned out it seemed, she was poking at the fire.
- Matt was silent as he continued to poke at the fire, every so often looking up from the flames to gaze at the lake's distant shore.
- Calomar had opened the door to the wood burning stove, and was poking at the fire with a metal poker he had found.
- He poked the partially burned wood a few times with a stick and flames rose and crackled as they burned brighter.
- One person, the leader, judging by the odd tufts of fur in random spots on his cloak, poked at the fire with his staff.
- Then someone poked at the fire and it flared up, illuminating the room.
- The page stirred from his pallet on the hearth and poked the fire back to life, then padded over, yawning, with a candle.
- Then I went back to the clearing, where Solastian was absently poking at the fire and completely oblivious to everything else.
- She again sat beside the fire, poking at its dead embers with a fallen green tree branch.
- After a while I rose and poked a few more sticks into the fire.
- The girl threw a log on the fire, and poked the embers into flames.
- From 1946 onwards, I have continuously poked fires with the help of various materials.
- They were seated in a square surrounding the flickering embers, and every now and then somebody would poke the fire to keep it burning.
- 1.2 Make (a hole) in something by prodding or jabbing at it.
Example sentencesExamples - Trent and I had just sneaked into the storage closet when his gaze drifted to the snare drum, and before I knew it, he started poking holes into it.
- Alternatively, poke holes in the can and throw it out attached to a length of string - you'll need to retrieve it to keep poking more holes in it as the contents disappear.
- For those who are curious, the researchers blew up the eggshells by poking holes in the top and the bottom, emptying them of egg, and filling them with hydrogen gas instead.
- You must poke very small holes though your liner so that aerobic conditions are not created in the soil.
- The great emotional issue for most oil producing states is upstream investment - the actual poking of holes in the ground.
- One could go on poking holes, but the improbabilities are legion.
- Even six thousand pounds of ballast wasn't enough to sink it, so we had to try to de-gas it by poking holes in it, and eventually it sank.
- A dibble was an instrument for poking holes in the ground for planting.
- There were four large sliding doors in the house and beyond them a shrine. I used to be scolded for poking holes in the sliding doors.
- ‘We use it to decide what to do as far as poking holes in the ground,’ says Davis.
- You've poked more holes into what's left of my ship, and I don't want to wait around here for whoever may come looking.
- She poked a few more holes in the belt and then cinched it around her waist.
- It growled at him and latched its teeth onto the windshield, the very tips of its fangs breaching the meager shield and poking holes in the glass.
- I bought pie plates and string, grabbed a hammer and nail, and began poking holes and stringing pie plates.
- The whole week went real smooth, except for one little incident where I kind of poked a hole in one of the pictures.
- Poke holes in the figs and repeat this step one more time.
- 1.3vulgar slang (of a man) have sexual intercourse with (another person).
2with object and adverbial of direction Thrust (something) in a particular direction. I poked my head around the door to see what was going on Example sentencesExamples - Finally, the door creaked over and my father poked his skinny, bony face into the room.
- Delia quickly caught their senile cat, Picasso, as he was poking his fat little head out.
- The traveller is shown poking his head and right arm through a boundary of stars enclosing this everyday world and reaching out to a universe of wonders beyond.
- The goat stands on his hind legs, embraces the glass, and pokes his long pointed tongue into the foam.
- Mr. Mbewe slides the stick shift into gear then rests his left hand on the wheel, poking a casual right elbow out of the window.
- Akos poked his great shaggy head around the frame and looked at her.
- The doctor, a balding man with a pitted red nose, poked his head around the doorframe.
- The door slid open with a familiar creak, an untidy head poking itself through, silhouetted against the warm glow of the lamps outside.
- At the sound of his rumbling voice, Gualtero poked his tousled brown head out of the shadows.
- I make almost no noise as I stumble down the hallway but still Jomei opens his door and pokes a sleepy orange head out, ‘Where are you going?’
- The woman steps up to the door, pokes her head in and asks: ‘Is this the 307 bus?’
- Follow this course in life and your nose'll never poke itself beyond a book.
- A man with a tonsure, much like the friars of old, poked his awkwardly shaped head out of the opening.
- A small, shriveled head poked itself out from the miniature doorway and peered at her.
- That was easily enough to poke one's head into the water.
- He just poked out his tongue from behind his helmet as he sent the puck back to the centre.
- 2.1no object, with adverbial Protrude and be or become visible.
she had wisps of gray hair poking out from under her bonnet Example sentencesExamples - His shirt was open to the second button; a few curly hairs poked through.
- With such visible history, the sun-blackened ruins poking out from the undergrowth and overgrowth, Nevis is fun to explore.
- Wiry white and grey hairs poked out of his thick, flabby ears and his blue eyes were shoved deep into this rough-skinned face.
- White hair poked out from under his cap and a pipe was clenched between his teeth.
- A widow of several years, she wears a green, yellow and orange headscarf, from which black and grey curls poke out.
- The shock of black hair poking from the top of his white OU visor was wet and mussed from a sideline celebration shower.
- Tufts of springy white hair poked up from the center of the crown.
- Small bits of dark brown hair poked out from underneath his hat.
- When I awoke, I was covered in strange purple hairs that poked out through my clothes and made a sound only dogs could hear.
- Leonard was a very tall young man, with bright blonde hair poking out from under his tattered cowboy hat.
- I can recall how O looked as if it were yesterday: lying next to me, his shirt slightly undone, the top of his chest hair poking out, huge grin on his face.
- My father's short reddish brown hair was poking out from beneath his hat, and my mother's dark hair wasn't far from being out of order as well.
- We must have walked for about an hour, and were on the point of turning round and returning to the caravan, when we spotted a stick poking out of the water, about twenty yards offshore.
- Ben watched her as she worked, wisps of her hair falling about her face and her tongue just visibly poking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.
- There was a big stick poking out of one of the trashcans.
- We cut to the next scene, where he is now under a large mound of sand, now with only the top of his head visible, poking through the side of the mound.
- Dark brown hair poked out around the edge of his white baseball cap.
- Pausing, he scratched a tuft of vibrant red hair poking from beneath his cap.
- Her fang teeth were starting to extend, poking down so they just visible in her open mouth, and her hands gripped the arms of the chair.
- One had a large backwards blue cap on his head, messy black hair poking out from underneath.
Synonyms stick out, jut out, stand out, protrude, project, extend, loom
3US informal no object Move slowly; dawdle. I was poking along, my vision blocked by that curtain of sleet Example sentencesExamples - She could see a shape poking slowly along it, stopping to feel each nook and cranny.
- A Cadillac with Kansas plates is poking along ahead of me.
- I'm still poking along at mere bytes a second, but technicians are working day and night to get my connection working again.
- But even if you're still poking along on dialup, they're worth it.
- Takenaka has already taken some quick steps to speed up a reform process that has been poking along at a snail's pace for ten years.
- After fifteen minutes of poking along with me to be polite, she gave in to her love of speed and they took off.
- Yet here was Commonweal still poking along as if nothing had really changed, and still accepting the verities of the cold war as well.
nounpōkpoʊk 1An act of poking someone or something. Example sentencesExamples - We were in the air about 45 minutes when I felt a poke in the ribs and turned to find my row-mate prodding me with his rolled-up reading material.
- Her mom gave her a poke and gestured to the table.
- A poke in his side however caught his attention and he looked down to a frowning Shi who had a scolding look on her face.
- I did not care for the pokes, prods, or interrogation I felt was imminent.
- With appropriate physical gentleness, have a poke and a prod and check out the territory.
- I gave the house sale a good poke and prod today and it sounds as if the urgency of our situation has got through.
- Paige was startled out of his musings by a particularly hard poke to his back.
- On the one hand, the elections this month gave them a poke in the eye.
- Delia felt a poke and immediately turned to her father, who was holding a piece of toast out for her.
- Lesley Vainikolo also left the Belle Vue battleground early but his double vision from a poke in the eye will not keep him out of this Friday's visit to The Shay to take on Halifax.
- He sighed, then sneezed as an unlucky poke of the stick in the fire sent a cloud of smoke into his face.
- But it was just a question of getting on with it with pokes and prods.
- And he delivers this brilliant poke in the collective eye of manipulative, one-sided documentary makers everywhere.
- They're posh girls who talk like lads down the boozer about boobs and bums and can't resist giving them a poke and a prod in a giggly, sapphic way - all very private school changing rooms.
- After a few prods and pokes, he gave an injection for the pain, sat at his desk, lifted the phone and ordered the air ambulance.
- I liked the fact that it came across as an affectionate poke, and the fact that Garth looked like a cross between one of my friends and that bloke in Can who had the big sidies.
- The main purpose of my wee trip was to see my Uncle John and give him a poke and prod prior to his heart surgery.
- Her finger moved down my belly ending with a poke as she slowly pulled away backwards, turned and left me in my waking dream.
- Consumer loyalty is rewarded with a poke in the eye.
- I laughed and gave him one last poke before I let go.
Synonyms prod, jab, dig, elbow, nudge, tap, butt thrust, push, jab, shove, plunge, insertion - 1.1vulgar slang An act of sexual intercourse.
2a poke aroundinformal A look or search around a place. 3British informal Power or acceleration in a car. I expect you'd prefer something with a bit more poke Example sentencesExamples - With plenty of poke, fluid handling and more interior space than an airport terminal, the Mondeo swallows my two sprogs and all their concomitant mess with ease.
- It is compact, though, and still looks terrific, and the new version has a lot of poke.
- There is bags of power from way down the rev range and loads of poke in the middle where it is needed for safe overtaking.
- Breakaway is sharper on the exit of a bend but that has as much to with extra poke and grippier tyres as it does with the suspension.
- Yes it provides a bit of poke, but it would be nice if this 1.6l engine could provide more than its quoted 95PS.
- Well, the petrol version will get you from to 60 in about two hours, so if you want any poke at all, and surely that's the reason why you're buying a BMW, you have to go for the diesel.
4A woman's bonnet with a projecting brim or front, popular especially in the early 19th century. Example sentencesExamples - A Pennsylvania Amish in a poke bonnet goes next, happy as a bug.
Phrases be better than a poke in the eye (with a sharp stick) humorous Be welcome or pleasing, even if other circumstances might be better. I got a tax rebate—not a huge amount but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick Example sentencesExamples - He's better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
- Getting hold of that is certainly better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
- Not a huge amount but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Example sentencesExamples - Laurel has a remarkable ability to poke fun at whatever she's insecure about.
- My middle name smacks of big slobbery dog jokes and yet my last name was the one kids poked fun at in school.
- My feelings of anger and disgust, but even stronger emptiness, stopped me from poking fun at all my usual subjects.
- It poked fun at all the seriousness that reality TV has become, and it made stereotypical reality TV scenes into comedic segments.
- This is a film that pokes fun at itself and doesn't take itself too seriously.
- I had been out to since sixth grade, not to my family of course, and had had my share of being teased and poked fun at but a few words dropped here and there and it was settled fast.
- Did I fancy writing a series of short articles poking fun at all the horrendous food that nobody ate any more?
- What fun it must have been for the young film-maker to poke fun at the older formula films, and their songs!
- One recent editorial cartoon pokes fun at just how widespread that practice has become.
- A send-up should be smarter than the films it pokes fun at, but that isn't the case here.
Synonyms mock, make fun of, laugh at, make jokes about, ridicule, jeer at, sneer at, deride, treat with contempt, treat contemptuously, scorn, laugh to scorn, scoff at, pillory, be sarcastic about, satirize, lampoon, burlesque, parody, tease, taunt, rag, make a monkey of, chaff, jibe at
informal Take an intrusive interest in. Example sentencesExamples - It's also possible to go round the old manor house, to poke your nose into all the barns and have a look at the old farm equipment.
- At home he has always poked his nose into everything that was going on and we are all mad about him
- He had poked his nose into all her private affairs from the start, so why shouldn't she return the compliment?
- Oddly enough, though, he has something in common with the foreigner who owns much of the British media - he pokes his nose into the country's politics from thousands of miles away!
- I don't poke my nose into other people's business.
- Also we tend not to get involved in some of the ‘intra-blog battles’ that rage across the web but they can be illuminating sometimes and are often fun to poke your nose into now and then.
- You can poke your nose into other people's business, usually without getting it punched.
- If we don't help, we're sitting by, being selfish; if we help too much, we're poking our nose into somebody else's business.
- Assuming that my regular schoolwork doesn't kill me, I'll see what I can poke my nose into as far as mysterious magical mischief makers go.
- I could have trammed up to the river or down to the beach, but both seemed a little too far away today, so I wandered aimlessly in semi-suburbia, poking my nose into odd shops and leaving without buying anything.
Synonyms pry into, interfere in, nose around in, intrude on, butt into, meddle with, tamper with
1informal Hit or punch someone. Example sentencesExamples - Plus, there are these guys I had a bit of an altercation with last week who'd love to take a poke at me, and I ain't about to help them out.
- But, like his twin before, he too took a poke at me, which just barely missed as I ducked behind mom, who was frowning in disapproval.
- Greengrass came barreling into second like a football blocker this time and I came up thinking I might as well take a poke at him.
- There are advantages and disadvantages to this; the advantage is that, done in a crowded situation, you don't have to be the immediate suspect if you take a poke at someone whose back is turned.
- 1.1Criticize someone.
Example sentencesExamples - He also took a poke at Panday's popular statement of giving his blood, sweat and tears to build the UNC.
- Cruelty to Intel now seems to be socially-acceptable, while taking a poke at AMD is right up there with fox hunting and baby seal clubbing.
- And of course I couldn't resist taking a poke at Justice Moore and his Ten Commandments monument.
- Here it was, Thursday, the fourth day I've had coffee with these fellows, and it's the first time I hear him take a poke at Ivan.
- Assuming everything goes as planned and Kerry and Edwards both show up for it, he has a chance to take a poke at Kerry.
- She shows depth on the inspirational ‘Get Up Again,’ and the grown-up ‘Our Child,’ and takes a poke at her detractors on ‘You Will Never.’
Phrasal Verbs Look around a place, typically in search of something. she poked about in the cupboard for a minute or two Example sentencesExamples - Is it really so bad that you'd go to the middle of Death Valley in order to not have studio suits poking around your set?
- I sighed and poked about in the bushes, searching for some sort of knob or button that might turn on the sprinklers.
- I'd spent much of the day poking around the village - my young cousin had found a bizarre rusty Victorian-style hook in the garden which had set me to thinking.
- Vittorio spies on Frank as he pokes around the parlor, searching for a hidden compartment.
- Believe me, we scoured the countryside and poked around in every old cabin and mining shack we could locate.
- It doesn't take much poking around the techie Web sites to find people dreaming hard about physical immortality.
- So if you're still poking around the beach in rolled-up trousers and a floppy hat, wishing you could get out to a reading or something, well, you can.
- But he wasn't convinced and after a bit of poking around said he thought it was more likely to be osteoarthritis, arguing that my hip joints may have simply worn out.
- We're still poking around to see what prompted Sherry's change of heart.
- But being the smart, sassy psychology student Ashton now is, he starts poking around, and soon people start dying.
- I roll over and hear our daughter poking around the house in search of dyed eggs.
- They don't like people poking around in their business.
- So while southern softies take their dogs for a stroll in the park, northern divers are poking about the wrecks of munitions ships in 40m, in search of unstable explosives for the barbecue.
- This still doesn't guarantee a clean sweep though, especially if I start poking around those uncharted corners of the web.
- We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.
- So I was poking around the Chronicle's annual survey of endowments.
- They rummaged rubbish heaps and poked around stacks of dried straw that lay against one part of the fence.
- Ramsey said search teams looked in burrows and sometimes poked around with sticks.
- Now we take this phenomenon for granted, but back in those early days, poking around inside a remote computer was heady business.
- He and Hayden were poking around a monsoon drain on Number Thirteen, searching for Hayden's errant drive.
Synonyms search, hunt, rummage, rummage around, forage, scrabble, grub, root about, root around, scavenge, fish about, fish around, rake around, feel around, grope around, nose around, ferret, ferret about, ferret around
Origin Middle English: origin uncertain; compare with Middle Dutch and Middle Low German poken, of unknown ultimate origin. The noun dates from the late 18th century. nounpoʊkpōk Scottish 1A bag or small sack. he fished out a poke of crisps from under the counter Example sentencesExamples - More exotic Scots words would include stoorsooker pokes, for vacuum cleaner bags and tea-pokies for tea bags.
- 1.1North American informal A purse or wallet.
his wallet's half out of his pocket—it comes to me that I might as well lift his poke
Origin Middle English: from Old Northern French poke, variant of Old French poche ‘pocket’. Compare with pouch. nounpōkpoʊk 1 another term for pokeweed 2 another term for false hellebore
Origin Early 18th century: from Algonquian poughkone (see puccoon). nounˌpōˈkāˌpoʊˈkeɪ A Hawaiian dish of marinated raw fish or seafood, often served over rice. a buffet full of Hawaiian favorites like fresh poke as modifier a wide range of poke bowls
Origin Hawaiian, literally ‘a slice’. |