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1984 July, Franco Frey, “SPECGRAFFITI”, in Crash, number 6:
The 200 UDGs may be used either by paging between 10 sets of 20 UDGs or, alternatively, by displaying 96 different characters by poking the system variable CHARS with 256 less than the starting address of your graphics.
1985, Tom Weishaar, Bert Kersey, The DOStalk Scrapbook, page 44:
If you try to poke a value outside this range into a byte, Basic will beep you with an ILLEGAL QUANTITY error.
(transitive) To put a poke (device to prevent leaping or breaking fences) on (an animal).
1883, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Vermont, page 70:
I find from their testimony , which was not contradicted , that the placing of such a poke upon such a colt in such a pasture is not considered dangerous, and that farmers are accustomed so to poke their own horses, but that they are not accustomed to put pokes on or 'hamper' horses owned by other persons without the authorization of the owner.
2009, Alexander Tokar, Metaphors of the Web 2.0, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 68:
Indeed, when we poke users who normally do not have access to our profiles, they will be able to temporarily see our Basic Info, Work Info, and Education Info.
(transitive) To thrust (something) in a particular direction such as the tongue.
To the uninitiated he looked like a slow old poke; but his string would lengthen out in a most mysterious way , and it was the height of our ambition to set as much and as clean a proof as old John.
2015, Theodore Dreiser, Twelve Men: Top American Novels:
I never saw such an old poke. You come up here and expect me to do some things for you, and then you stand around as though you were made of bone!
2019, Paolo Cherchi Usai, The Griffith Project, Volume 9: Films Produced in 1916-18:
The three laugh at him for a slow old poke and go on to their pleasure.
2021, Booth Tarkington, Women:
Old Fred is the slowest old poke, isn't he? Suppose I try, Paul.
1871, Mary Webster McClain, Daisy Ward's Work, page 112:
I see you shaking your head at me, mother, and reminding me of 'That mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me;' but I don't believe I go on so; if I have nothing to say I keep still, and you'd better be a stupid poke, which I often feel myself, than waste the time with such trash.
1912, Louisa May Alcott, An Old-fashioned Girl, page 20:
She was only sixteen, and he was perfectly splendid, and she has plenty of money, and every one talked about it; and when she went anywhere, people looked, you know, and she liked it; but her papa is an old poke, so he's sent them all away. It's too bad, for she was the jolliest thing I ever knew .
1956, “Professional Status of Surveyors and Mappers”, in Surveying and Mapping, volume 16, page 184:
I think you are all reasonably well aware that the common picture of the surveying and mapping profession is proabably best exemplified at the present time by the old poke who is out with a rickety old transit, wearing old ragged clothes.
1968, Joseph Kirkland, The Captain of Company K, page 237:
"Oh, you old poke, you! You think nobody can be grown up but yourself. I really believe they all think I'm a great deal older than I am, and I just hope you won't go and tell them I am not. "Now, will you?"
2014, Eugenia Riley, Bushwhacked Bride:
“That's what you're going to rob?” she asked Cole. “Yep.” He viewed the scene with a hand shading his eyes, then grinned at Billy. “Only a driver and one old poke riding shotgun. You'd think they'd have learned better by now."
An old, worn-out horse.
1872, Edward Everett Hale, Old and New - Volume 6, page 686:
It was feared the dear old poke I had been riding could not keep up with the rest on this long day's journey: so I had "the cook's horse," who did not understand my method of pulling my dear old beast's head from the edge of the ravine gently with my bridle.
1889, Clara Louise Burnham, Young Maids and Old, page 89:
Probably summer residents, and this old poke won't move out of a walk, and I've no whip.
2019, Frederic Remington, John Ermine of the Yellowstone:
Yes, mother, but my horse is such an old poke I was nowhere in the race.
2019, M. L. Buchman, At the Slightest Sound:
It's not the helo's fault, even if it is clunkier than a stumblebum old poke of a plow horse—bless its rotors.
(US) A device to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences, consisting of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward.
1883, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Vermont, page 70:
I find from their testimony , which was not contradicted , that the placing of such a poke upon such a colt in such a pasture is not considered dangerous, and that farmers are accustomed so to poke their own horses, but that they are not accustomed to put pokes on or 'hamper' horses owned by other persons without the authorization of the owner.
1883, Horace R. Allen, The American Farm and Home Cyclopedia, page 285:
This yoke or poke will prevent any horse from scaling a fence, if well made.
2007 July 22, David Smith, “Faceoff!”, in The Guardian:
It could be described as a poke, but not a friendly one. For those who have not yet succumbed to Facebook, the latest craze on the internet, a ‘poke’ is an electronic greeting sent, for example, to an old friend from university.
In the summertime they'd reach out and snatch your straw hat right off your head, and if you were fool enough to go after it your poke was bound to be lighter when you came out.
2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 138:
She did not eat blood-oranges. Her maw gived her one in a poke and she was going to throw it in the bin, Oh it is all black.
2004 October 17, Garrett Hongo, “Poke”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Though I'd often eaten sashimi, poke was then completely new to me—delicious rubies of cubed fish dressed in light sesame oil, garnished with minced bits of reddish-brown seaweed and the ground centers of kukui nuts (see recipe, next page).
2016 February 4, Ligaya Mishan, “Poke Reaches the Shores of Manhattan”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
The fishmonger offered the poke in plastic tubs, without ceremony, just as I had always known it in Honolulu, where I grew up and where some of the best poke is sold at a liquor store, Tamura’s. Then, a few years back, poke started appearing on stray restaurant menus, sometimes identified as Hawaiian crudo or ceviche.
Usage notes
Often typeset as poké to aid pronunciation as two syllables.
Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “poko*”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 434
Ross, Malcolm D. (2016) Andrew Pawley, editor, The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: Volume 5, People: body and mind, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, →OCLC; republished as Meredith Osmond, editor, (Please provide a date or year)