Poking

How to spell poking

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce poking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does poking mean?

1. verbJabbing or prodding something repeatedly, especially with a finger or a pointed object.
2. verbSearching, rummaging, or prying into something, often where one is not welcome.

Poking in a sentence

• The toddler kept poking the cat until it walked away.

• He spent the afternoon poking around the old shed for spare parts.

• She was poking the logs in the fire to keep the flames going.

• The manager caught the new intern poking through the desk drawers.

Where does poking come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This is the present participle of the verb 'poke', which appears in Middle English as 'poken', meaning to push, prod, or thrust at something. The word is thought to have come from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch 'poken', meaning to thrust or strike, part of the close trade-driven exchange of vocabulary between English and its North Sea neighbours during the medieval period. The original sense of a sharp, repeated jab survives intact in modern use, whether describing a finger in the ribs or a stick stirring a fire. From the literal 'prod' grew the figurative 'poking around', meaning to search or pry, recorded from at least the eighteenth century. The spelling trap is straightforward: 'poke' drops its silent final 'e' before the '-ing' ending, leaving 'poking' rather than the mistaken 'pokeing'.

How the word is built

• poke (to prod or jab)
• -ing (present participle suffix)