POKING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does poking mean? 

• POKING (noun)
  The noun POKING has 1 sense:

1. a sharp hand gesture (resembling a blow)

  Familiarity information: POKING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sharp hand gesture (resembling a blow)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

jab; jabbing; poke; poking; thrust; thrusting

Context example:

he made a thrusting motion with his fist

Hypernyms ("poking" is a kind of...):

gesture (motion of hands or body to emphasize or help to express a thought or feeling)

Derivation:

poke (poke or thrust abruptly)

 Context examples 

At last, in my despair, I saw a little door in the roof, and on poking it open, a red eye appeared, and a beery voice said...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Lord bless me! how do you think I can live poking by myself, I who have been always used till this winter to have Charlotte with me.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“It is but child's play, this poking game,” said John.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I hate the sight of that sharp-pointed snout of his, which he wants to be ever poking into my affairs.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Grant, who are always quarrelling, and that poking old woman, who knows no more of whist than of algebra.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"Why, yes, yes, dinner, you know—just pot luck with us, with your old superintendent, you rascal," he uttered nervously, poking Martin in an attempt at jocular fellowship.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“But look here, mister, I don’t care for folk poking about my place without my leave, so the sooner you pay your score and get out of this the better I shall be pleased.”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After some poking about with this instrument, in the course of which his face assumed a variety of distracted expressions, Mr. Barkis poked it against a box, an end of which had been visible to me all the time.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"By Jove, she's forgotten her dinner!" cried the unconscious youth, poking the scarlet monster into its place with his cane, and preparing to hand out the basket after the old lady.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"It's worth considering," Martin replied; "but it doesn't seem worth while enough to rouse sufficient energy in me. You see, it does take energy to give a fellow a poking. Besides, what does it matter?"

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)