POKY (pokier, pokiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: pokier    , pokiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does poky mean? 

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

1. a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)

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

• POKY (adjective)
  The adjective POKY has 2 senses:

1. wasting time

2. small and remote and insignificant

  Familiarity information: POKY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POKY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

clink; gaol; jail; jailhouse; pokey; poky; slammer

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

correctional institution (a penal institution maintained by the government)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "poky"):

bastille (a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner))

holding cell (a jail in a courthouse where accused persons can be confined during a trial)

hoosegow; hoosgow (slang for a jail)

house of correction ((formerly) a jail or other place of detention for persons convicted of minor offences)

lockup (jail in a local police station)

workhouse (a county jail that holds prisoners for periods up to 18 months)

• POKY (adjective)

Comparative: pokier   
Superlative: pokiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wasting time

Synonyms:

dilatory; laggard; pokey; poky

Similar:

slow (not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time)

Derivation:

poke (someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Small and remote and insignificant

Synonyms:

jerkwater; one-horse; pokey; poky

Context example:

passed a series of poky little one-horse towns

Similar:

provincial (characteristic of the provinces or their people)

 Context examples 

If the Laurences had been what Jo called 'prim and poky', she would not have got on at all, for such people always made her shy and awkward.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was a poky, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded laurel bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and uncongenial atmosphere.

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

And I can only stay home and knit, like a poky old woman!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)