Pinch vs Poke - What's the difference?
pinch | poke |
To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
To steal, usually of something almost trivial or inconsequential.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 13
, author=Alistair Magowan
, title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd
, work=BBC Sport
(slang) To arrest or capture.
(horticulture) To cut shoots]] or [[bud, buds of a plant in order to shape the plant, or to improve its yield.
(nautical) To sail so close-hauled that the sails begin to flutter.
(hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.
(obsolete) To be niggardly or covetous.
* Franklin
To seize; to grip; to bite; said of animals.
* Chapman
(figurative) To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve.
* Sir Walter Raleigh
To move, as a railroad car, by prying the wheels with a pinch.
The action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt.
A small amount of powder or granules, such that the amount could be held between fingertip and thumb tip.
An awkward situation of some kind (especially money or social) which is difficult to escape.
* 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 171:
An organic herbal smoke additive.
To prod or jab with a pointed object such as a finger or a stick.
* {{quote-news
, year=2010
, date=December 29
, author=Sam Sheringham
, title=Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton
, work=BBC
To poke a fire to remove ash or promote burning.
(figuratively) To rummage as in to poke about in.
(computing) To modify the value stored in (a memory address).
* 1984 , Franco Frey, SPECGRAFFITI'' (in ''Crash magazine, issue 6, July 1984)
* 1985 , Tom Weishaar, Bert Kersey, The DOStalk Scrapbook (page 44)
To put a poke on.
To thrust with the horns; to gore.
(informal, internet) To notify.
(label) To thrust (something) in a particular direction such as the tongue.
(US, slang) A lazy person; a dawdler.
(US, slang) A stupid or uninteresting person.
(US) A device to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences, consisting of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward.
(computing) The storage of a value in a memory address, typically to modify the behaviour of a program or to cheat at a video game.
* 1988 , "Lloyd Mangram", Forum'' (in ''Crash magazine issue 54, July 1988)
* c. 1386 , , The Canterbury Tales'',
* c. 1599 , ,
* 1605 , ,
* 1627 , ,
* 1814 , September 4,
* 1946 , Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues , Payback Press 1999, p. 91:
* 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 138:
A long, wide sleeve; a poke sleeve.
(Scotland, Northern Ireland) An ice cream cone.
As verbs the difference between pinch and poke
is that pinch is to squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while poke is to prod or jab with a pointed object such as a finger or a stick.As nouns the difference between pinch and poke
is that pinch is the action of squeezing a small amount of a person's skin and flesh, making it hurt while poke is a lazy person; a dawdler.pinch
English
Verb
(es)- The children were scolded for pinching each other.
- This shoe pinches my foot.
- Someone has pinched my handkerchief!
citation, page= , passage=Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years.}}
- (Gower)
- the wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare
- He [the hound] pinched and pulled her down.
- to be pinched for money
- want of room pinching a whole nation
Noun
(es)- It took nerve and muscle both to carry the body out and down the stairs to the lower hall, but he damn well had to get it out of his place and away from his door, and any of those four could have done it in a pinch', and it sure was a ' pinch .
Derived terms
* feel the pinch * in a pinch * at a pinch * pinchy * take with a pinch of saltDescendants
* Japanese: (pinchi)poke
English
Etymology 1
Perhaps from (etyl) poken or (etyl) poken (both from (etyl) ), perhaps imitative.Verb
(pok)citation, page= , passage=Ward showed good pace to beat the advancing Reina to the ball and poke a low finish into the corner.}}
- The 200 UDGs may be used either by paging between 10 sets of 20 UDGs or, alternatively, by displaying 96 different characters by poking the system variable CHARS with 256 less than the starting address of your graphics.
- If you try to poke a value outside this range into a byte, Basic will beep you with an ILLEGAL QUANTITY error.
- to poke an ox
Derived terms
{{der3, poke along , poke bonnet , poke box , poke fun , toepoke}}Noun
(en noun)- (Bartlett)
- Perhaps all those super hackers who so regularly produce infinite lives etc. could produce pokes to be used by 128K users.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) poke, whence pocketNoun
(en noun)''The Miller's Prologue and Tale:
- Gerveys answerde, “Certes, were it gold,
Or in a poke nobles alle untold,
Thou sholdest have, as I am trewe smyth.
As You Like It , act 2, scene 7:
- And then he drew a dial from his poke ,
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, ‘It is ten o'clock…’
Remaines Concerning Brittaine'', 1629 edition, ''Proverbes , page 276:
- When the Pig is proffered, hold vp the poke .
Minor Poems of Michael Drayton'', 1907 edition, poem ''Nimphidia :
- And suddainly vntyes the Poke ,
Which out of it sent such a smoke,
As ready was them all to choke,
So greeuous was the pother [...].
The Examiner'', volume 13, number 349, article ''French Fashions , page 573:
- … and as to shape , a nightmare has as much. Under the poke and the muff-box, the face sometimes entirely disappears …
- In the summertime they'd reach out and snatch your straw hat right off your head, and if you were fool enough to go after it your poke was bound to be lighter when you came out.
- She did not eat blood-oranges. Her maw gived her one in a poke and she was going to throw it in the bin, Oh it is all black.