| Front | poke |
|---|---|
| Back | poke verb, noun BrE /pəʊk/ NAmE /poʊk/ verb verb forms word origin example bank 1 [transitive] to quickly push your fingers or another object into sb/sth prod ~ sb/sth with sth She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. ~ sth into sth She poked her elbow into his ribs. ~ sb/sth I'm sick of being poked and prodded by doctors. She got up and poked the fire (= to make it burn more strongly). 2 [transitive] ~ sth + adv./prep. to push sth somewhere or move it in a particular direction with a small quick movement He poked his head around the corner to check that nobody was coming. Someone had poked a message under the door. Don't poke her eye out with that stick! 3 [intransitive] + adv./prep. if an object is poking out of, through, etc. sth, you can see a part of it that is no longer covered by sth else The end of the cable was left poking out of the wall. A bony elbow poked through a hole in his sweater. Clumps of grass poked up through the snow. 4 [transitive] ~ a hole in sth (with sth) to make a hole in sth by pushing your finger or another object into it The kids poked holes in the ice with sticks. 5 [transitive] ~ sb (taboo, slang) (of a man) to have sex with sb poke ˈfun at sb/sth to say unkind things about sb/sth in order to make other people laugh at them ridicule Her novels poke fun at the upper class. She's always poking fun at herself. more at poke/stick your nose into sth at nose n. ˌpoke aˈbout/aˈround (informal) to look for sth, especially sth that is hidden among other things that you have to move The police spent the day poking around in his office but found nothing. (figurative) We've had journalists poking around and asking a lot of questions. ˈpoke at sth to push a pointed object, your finger, etc. at sth repeatedly with small quick movements He poked at the spaghetti with a fork. noun word origin example bank 1 [countable, usually singular] the action of quickly pushing your fingers or another object into sb/sth to give the fire a poke He gave me a poke in the ribs to wake me up. 2 [uncountable] (BrE) power in a car I prefer something with a bit more poke. have a ˌpoke aˈround (informal) to look carefully around a place to see what you can find; to try to find out information about sb/sth His mother often goes into his room and has a good old poke around. take a ˈpoke at sb/sth (old-fashioned, NAmE, informal) to make an unkind remark about sb/sth; to laugh at sb/sth more at (buy) a pig in a poke at pig n. |
Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.
Next card: Hack hacked sb/sth adv./prep sth noun hæk word
Previous card: Tr whop 柯林斯2008 wɑp] wop commonly whap informal
Up to card list: A Song of Ice and Fire