To boy a pig a poke to buy a thing without knowledge or examination of it. Camden.

Poke
(Poke), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Poked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Poking.] [Cf. LG. poken to prick, pierce, thrust, pok a dagger, knife, D. pook, G. pocken to beat, also Ir. poc a blow, Gael. puc to push.]

1. To thrust or push against or into with anything pointed; hence, to stir up; to excite; as, to poke a fire.

He poked John, and said "Sleepest thou ?"
Chaucer.

2. To thrust with the horns; to gore.

3. [From 5th Poke, 3.] To put a poke on; as, to poke an ox. [Colloq. U. S.]

To poke fun, to excite fun; to joke; to jest. [Colloq.] — To poke fun at, to make a butt of; to ridicule. [Colloq.]

Poke
(Poke), v. i. To search; to feel one's way, as in the dark; to grope; as, to poke about.

A man must have poked into Latin and Greek.
Prior.

Poke
(Poke), n.

1. The act of poking; a thrust; a jog; as, a poke in the ribs. Ld. Lytton.

2. A lazy person; a dawdler; also, a stupid or uninteresting person. [Slang, U.S.] Bartlett.

3. A contrivance to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences. It consists of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward. [U.S.]

Poke bonnet, a bonnet with a straight, projecting front.

Pokebag
(Poke"bag`) n. [So called in allusion to its baglike nest.] (Zoöl.) The European long- tailed titmouse; — called also poke-pudding. [Prov. Eng.]

Poker
(Pok"er) n. [From Poke to push.]

1. One who pokes.

2. That which pokes or is used in poking, especially a metal bar or rod used in stirring a fire of coals.

3. A poking-stick. Decker.

4. (Zoöl.) The poachard. [Prov. Eng.]

Poker picture, a picture formed in imitation of bisterwashed drawings, by singeing the surface of wood with a heated poker or other iron. Fairholt.

Poker
(Pok"er), n. [Of uncertain etymol.] A game at cards derived from brag, and first played about 1835 in the Southwestern United States. Johnson's Cyc.

Poker
(Pok"er), n. [Cf. Dan. pokker the deuce, devil, also W. pwci, a hobgoblin, bugbear, and E. puck.] Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear. [Colloq. U. S.]

2. A long, wide sleeve; — called also poke sleeve.

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