/stəʊk/, /stoʊk/
OriginFrom Middle English stoken, from Middle Dutch stoken (“to poke, thrust”) or Middle Low German stoken (“to poke, thrust”), from Old Dutch *stokon or Old Saxon *stokon, both from Proto-West Germanic *stokōn, from Proto-Germanic *stukōną (“to be stiff, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewg- (“to push, beat”).
Cognate with Middle High German stoken (“to pierce, jab”), Norwegian Nynorsk stauka (“to push, thrust”). Alternative etymology derives the Middle English word from Old French estoquer, estochier (“to thrust, strike”), from the same Germanic source. More at stock.
- obsolete, transitiveTo poke, pierce, thrust.
“Ne short swerd for to stoke with point bityng / No man ne drawe ne bere it by his syde / Ne no man shal un to his felawe ryde / But o cours with a sharp ygrounde spere” — No man shall draw a short sword with a sharpened point for piercing thrusts, nor will bear any such weapon by his side. Neither shall any man ride toward his opponent with a sharp-ground spear more th
- transitiveTo feed, stir up, especially, a fire or furnace.
- broadly, transitiveTo encourage a behavior or emotion.
“Stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song”
“To stoke motivation and ambition, focus instead on the road ahead.”
“But, backed by a partying crowd in cowboy hats and fine voice, it was a display that only stoked belief that the Red Roses can make good on their status as tournament favourites after losing in five o”
- intransitiveTo attend to or supply a furnace with fuel; to act as a stoker or fireman.
- An act of poking, piercing, thrusting
- alt-of, misconstructionMisconstruction of stokes, a unit of kinematic viscosity.
- abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsisEllipsis of Stoke-on-Trent, a city in Staffordshire, England.
“The main line of the L.N.W.R. passed to the west of the Potteries, and it is recorded that in August, 1846, two trains were run from Whitmore (the nearest station to Stoke) to Liverpool for the benefi”
- A former civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, now merged into Stoke and Hurleston civil parish.
- A village on Hayling Island, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU7102).
- A village and civil parish in Medway borough, Kent, England; the parish includes Lower Stoke and Middle Stoke (OS grid ref TQ8275).
- An eastern suburb of Coventry, West Midlands, England (there are a few places in Coventry with other affixes of Stoke) (OS grid ref SP3679).
- A civil parish in Bromsgrove district, Worcestershire, England.
- An outer suburb of Nelson, New Zealand, not far from Richmond, named after Stoke-by-Nayland in England.
Formsstokes(present, singular, third-person) · stoking(participle, present) · stoked(participle, past) · stoked(past) · stokes(plural)