poke

Universal Words verb, noun verb 1 [VN] ~ sb/sth (with sth) to quickly push your fingers or another object into sb/sth: She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. * She poked her elbow into his ribs. * I'm sick of being poked and prodded by doctors. * She got up and poked the fire (= to make it burn more strongly). 2 [VN+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 [V+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 [VN+adv./prep.] ~ 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 [VN] (slang, !!!) (of a man) to have sex with sb IDIOMS poke fun at sb/sth to say unkind things about sb/sth in order to make other people laugh at them: Her novels poke fun at the upper class. * She's always poking fun at herself. moreatNOSEn. PHRASALVERBS poke about / around (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. poke 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 1 [C,usually sing.] 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 [U] (BrE) power in a car: I prefer something with a bit more poke. IDIOMS have a poke around (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 poke at sb/sth (old-fashioned, AmE, informal) to make an unkind remark about sb/sth; to laugh at sb/sth moreatPIGn.