poke out

English

Verb

poke out (third-person singular simple present pokes out, present participle poking out, simple past and past participle poked out)

1. (intransitive) To be barely visible past an obstruction or obstructions; to protrude.
   • 1886, Wilkie Collins, The Evil Genius, London: Chatto & Windus, Volume 1, Before the Story, Part 4, p. 41,^[1]

     Here’s the Queen, my dears, in her gilt coach, drawn by six horses. Do you see her sceptre poking out of the carriage window? She governs the nation with that.

   • 1916, Margaret Deland, The Rising Tide, New York: Harper & Bros., Chapter 5, p. 69,^[2]

     “Fred’s great, perfectly great,” she said, looking down at the toe of her slipper, poking out from her pink tulle skirt.

   • 1963, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, London: Faber & Faber, 1971, Chapter Thirteen,^[3]

     A big round grey rock, like the upper half of an egg, poked out of the water about a mile from the stony headland.

2. (intransitive) To emerge from behind, in, or under something.
   • 1893, John Arthur Barry, “A Cape Horn Christmas” in Steve Brown’s Bunyip and Other Stories, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1905, p. 277,^[4]

     As they gazed, a white face, wet with the sweat of fear, poked out and stared down upon them with eyes in which the late terror still lived.

   • 1904, Laurence Housman, The Blue Moon, London: John Murray, “The Moon-Stroke,” p. 95,^[5]

     One by one five mouths poked out of the shells, demanding to be fed […]

   • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Toronto: Oxford University Press, Chapter 9,^[6]

     As dawn came I watched things slowly poke out of the black. Each thing was a surprise.

3. (transitive) To cause (something) to protrude or emerge.
   • 1574, Arthur Golding (translator), Sermons of Master John Calvin upon the Booke of Job, London: Lucas Harison and George Byshop, Sermon 134, on Chapter 34, p. 692,^[7]

     Ye see then we are but as snayles, and are chaunged incontinent. And is it meet that we shoulde poke out our hornes agaynst God?

   • 1911, Katherine Mansfield, “The Luft Bad” in In a German Pension, London: Stephen Swift & Co., p. 132,^[8]

     I felt so light and free and happy—so childish! I wanted to poke my tongue out at the circle on the grass, who, drawing close together, were whispering meaningly.

4. (transitive) To remove (something) by poking (often creating a hole in the process).
   • 1665, John Phillips (translator), Typhon, or, The Gyants War with the Gods by Paul Scarron (1644), London: Samuel Speed, Canto 5, p. 147,^[9]

     Apollo then does shoot so right

     With shaft that’s sharp as well as bright,

     Hits Ephialtes in the eye;

     And Hercules that then stood by,

     Pokes out his other: farewel he.

   • 1842, Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” in Lyrics of Life, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866, p. 35, lines 148-149,^[10]

     “Go,” cried the Mayor, “and get long poles!

     Poke out the nests and block up the holes!