Word.ws English Dictionary

poker

/ˈpəʊkə/US/ˈpoʊkɚ/

poker noun: a metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.

poker: a metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a...
Image: Valerie McGlinchey, CC BY-SA 2.0 uk, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

poker (plural pokers)

  1. A metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.
  2. (historical) A tool like a soldering iron for making poker drawings.
  3. One who pokes.
    • The guy next to him poked him in the ribs and said, “Check out the bazongas on this one!” Lee pivoted toward the rib poker and found himself looking straight into the face of Romeo Bouchard.2012, Johnny Meah, Risk: No Eulogy for Tin Soldiers, page 40
  4. A kind of duck, the pochard.
  5. (Multicultural-London-English, slang) A knife.
    • Key sense with the super-soaker
      Longest poker, leave man stressed like yoga2020 July 8, Kaygrab x D1, “Rapid”, 1:18–1:21
    • There is that guy that does with the pokings
      I step with my poker
      Play, cuz right, you might get folded2021 March 6, Mloose (BG), “Real As Hell”, 0:58–1:02
  6. (UK, obsolete, slang) A bedel (who carries a silver mace).
    • On seats with velvet lined, / Sat Heads of Houses in a row, / And Deans and College Dons below, / With a Poker or two behind.1841, George John Daire, The Rime of the New-made Baccalere
    Synonyms:
    silver poker

Verb (1)

poker (third-person singular simple present pokers, present participle pokering, simple past and past participle pokered)

  1. (transitive) To poke with a utensil such as a poker or needle.
    • The King continued pokering the fire with his back to the door, and took no notice of Lord Chesterfield.1796 July, “The Late Lord Chesterfield”, in The Aberdeen Magazine, volume 1, number 2, page 70
    • The lids have very pleasant designs pokered on with a hot needle.1939, Norah Gourlie, A Winter with Finnish Lapps, page 68

Noun (2)

poker (countable and uncountable, plural pokers)

  1. Any of various card games in which, following each of one or more rounds of dealing or revealing cards, the players in sequence make tactical bets or drop out, the bets forming a pool to be taken either by the sole remaining player or, after all rounds and bets have been completed, by those remaining players who hold a superior hand according to a standard ranking of hand values for the game.
    • As mesmerizing as it is to watch Kristen Kish whip up bacon and cinnamon waffles with boysenberry and strawberry jam, imagine playing poker with Hosea Rosenberg.2014 September 11, Pam Grout, “Really? 10 unexpected cruise activities”, in CNN
  2. All the four cards of the same rank.
  3. (rare) The scoring of four goals by a player in one match.
    • Greaves hit three hat-tricks, two pokers and five goals against West Brom on his way to a record-setting 41 league goals.2021 September 20, Ratul Ghosh, “THE BEST MOMENTS FROM JIMMY GREAVES' LEGENDARY FOOTBALLING CAREER”, in FootTheBall
    • Poker Face: Taty Castellanos strikes FOUR times for NYCFC vs. RSL2022 April 17, Dylan Butler, “Recap: NYCFC 6, Real Salt Lake 0”, in MLS
    Synonyms:
    haul

Verb (2)

poker (third-person singular simple present pokers, present participle pokering, simple past and past participle pokered)

  1. To play poker.
    • Then we went to Mead's and pokered until morning.1929, West Virginia Wild Life, page 38
    • Papa liked nothing better than a game of poker . His pokering habits caused Mama grave anxiety.1969, Emma Wilson Emery, Aunt Puss & Others: Old Days in the Piney Woods, page 94

Noun (3)

poker (plural pokers)

  1. (US, colloquial) Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear.
    • The very leaves on the horse-chesnuts[…]cling to the bough as if old poker was coming to take them away.5 May 1784, Horace Walpole, letter to Hon. H. S. Conway

poker meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

poker in Hindi

card game
पोकर pokar

poker in Tamil

சீட்டாட்டம், சீட்டுவிளையாட்டு, தீக்கிளறி

poker in Marathi

card game
पोकर pokar

poker in Urdu

card game
پوکر pokar
More languagesFewer languages
poker in Bengali
জুজু, অনমনীয় ব্যক্তি
poker in Telugu
పోకర్, పోకరర్, పోకరింగ్
poker in Malayalam
കിളർത്തുന്നവൻ, ഒരുതരം ചീട്ടുകളി, ഉന്തുന്നവൻ, തള്ളുന്നവൻ
poker in Kannada
ಕೆದಕುಕಂಬಿ
poker in Punjabi
ਪੋਕਰ, ਪੋਕਰਿੰਗ
poker in Gujarati
પોકર
poker in Odia
ପୋକର, ପୋକର୍, ପୋକରିଂ
poker in Nepali
पोकर, पोकरिंग, पोकरिङ
poker in Tagalog
poker
poker in Arabic
سِطَام siṭām, مِسْعَار misʕār, بُوكَر bōkar, بُوكِر bōker
poker in Malay
poker
poker in Persian
پوکر
poker in Thai
โป๊กเกอร์ bpóok-gə̂ə, เผ pěe
poker in Vietnamese
pôke, bài xì

Examples of poker in a sentence

  • Ibra has scored a "poker" on four separate occasions during his career: twice with Paris Saint-Germain and twice for Sweden.2023 January 24, Chris Wright, “Mbappe scored career-high five goals in one game. What about Messi, Ronaldo and world's other top...
  • The only player who scored a poker at Nou Camp is Milinko Pantić.2023 April 6, “THE 11TH HAT TRICK SCORER AT NOU CAMP”, in International Federation of Football History and Statistics:
  • "He ran with and pokered with us boys,” Bob Paine would recall fifty years later, “ the darndest, pepperyest, finest companion a fellow could ask.”1992, Vance H. Trimble, The Astonishing Mr. Scripps, page 56:
  • “We're pokering, so shut the fuck up.” “I raise five,” Blake announces.2017, Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen, Stay:

All 40 example sentences with poker

Synonyms of poker

9 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of poker

Forms of poker

Noun
pluralpokers
Verb
third-person singular presentpokers
present participlepokering
past participlepokered
pastpokered

Plural of poker: pokers

Origin of poker

From poke + -er.

American English, perhaps from first element of German Pochspiel, from German pochen, perhaps from French poque. First appeared in the 19th century.

Compare Danish pokker (“the deuce, devil”), and English puck.

Words formed from poker

Phrases with poker

Words that rhyme with poker

Questions about poker

What does poker mean?
Poker means a metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.
What is poker in Hindi?
Poker in Hindi is पोकर (pokar). See Poker meaning in Hindi.
How do you use poker in a sentence?
Ibra has scored a "poker" on four separate occasions during his career: twice with Paris Saint-Germain and twice for Sweden.
What part of speech is poker?
Poker can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce poker?
Poker is pronounced /ˈpoʊkɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of poker?
The plural of poker is pokers.

Words near poker in the dictionary

  1. Pokemons
  2. pokeout
  3. pokeouts
  4. Pokephilia
  5. pokeporn
  6. poker
  7. poker chip
  8. poker chips
  9. poker dice
  10. poker die
  11. poker drawing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poker (page history and authors); poker (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poker (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poker (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); poker (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poker (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); poker (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); poker (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); poker (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); poker (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-poker.wav.

Cite this entry: “poker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.