Literary notes about poke (AI summary)
Writers have long exploited the remarkable versatility of "poke" to enrich both literal and figurative expressions. In some narratives, the term vividly depicts physical prodding—characters poke at a fire to rekindle its glow [1, 2] or gently prod a baby with a finger [3]—invoking tactile images that animate a scene. In other passages, "poke" conveys the idea of unwelcome intrusion, as when a character remarks, "I don't poke my nose into other people's business" [4] or advises others against meddling [5, 6]. The word also frequently appears in its idiomatic form as "poke fun," capturing a tone of light teasing or subtle mockery, as demonstrated in several texts [7, 8, 9, 10]. Moreover, idiomatic expressions like "buy a pig in a poke" serve as cautions against unwise transactions, emphasizing the risks of accepting things at face value [11, 12, 13]. In this way, "poke" elegantly bridges the physical and metaphorical, allowing authors to layer their language with both humor and gravity.
- Towards midnight he was about to poke his fire, and as he was blowing it, something cried suddenly from one corner, "Au, miau!
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - “You haven't been using it to poke the kitchen fire with by any chance?” Stanley dashed into the bedroom where Linda was lying.
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield - He went over to the baby where it was playing on the floor and began to poke his finger at it.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - I don't poke my nose into other people's business.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Don't you be a meddlesome wench an' poke your nose where it's no cause to go.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Don’t you be a meddlesome wench an’ poke your nose where it’s no cause to go.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Sri Yukteswar used to poke gentle fun at the commonly inadequate conceptions of renunciation.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - [Pg 53] I am aware that there are those who love to poke fun at the plain man's idea of reality.
— from The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer - No sooner was it finished than it began to laugh and poke fun at him.
— from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi - True, he had a fiendish desire to tease him sometimes, to poke fun at him, but at bottom he was sorry for the fellow.
— from The Garden Party, and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield - If not like me, vat for vy buy de pig in the poke?”
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Of course you may search for five years, and even then buy a pig in a poke.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - take a leap in the dark, buy a pig in a poke.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget
