poke
part of speech
verb (poke, pokes, poked, poking); noun (a poke, pokes)
meaning for a pupil
1) To poke is to push something with your finger or a pointed object. tree →
2) To poke out is to stick out from somewhere so you can see part of it. tree →
3) A poke is a quick push with a finger or stick. tree →
4) To poke around is to look around in a place, sometimes where you should not. tree →
5) To poke fun at someone is to laugh at them unkindly. tree →
6) To buy a pig in a poke means to buy something without looking at it first. tree →
sense in the lessons
In safety, never poke anything into an electric socket, your ears, your eyes or an animal. Don't poke a wild animal or a sleeping dog. In stories, a head poking out of a hole shows someone hiding or curious. Phrases: poke fun at, poke your nose into (be nosy), poke out, poke around, a poke in the eye.
examples
- Don't poke the dog with a stick. tree →
- He poked me in the arm to wake me. tree →
- A rabbit poked its head out of the burrow. tree →
- Never poke anything into a socket. tree →
- Stop poking around in my room! tree →
- It's unkind to poke fun at people. tree →
- Daffodils were poking up through the soil. tree →
note
Past form poked. "Poke your nose into" means interfere in other people's business. Poking someone in the eye can cause serious injury, even as a joke.
In the corpora
- The tailorbird pokes holes in leaves and pulls plant fibres or spider silk through them to sew a leaf cup round its nest.
- Trouble comes when people grab, poke, step on or come too close.
- Never poke, throw things at or try to knock down a bees' or wasps' nest.
- You must never poke a knife or fork into a toaster, even when it is switched off at the wall.
- A boy in Texas woke his hamster in the daytime by poking it; the startled hamster bit his finger hard.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «poke» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.