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Pokey vs Pogey - What's the difference?

pokey | pogey |

As nouns the difference between pokey and pogey

is that pokey is prison while pogey is (chiefly|historical|countable) a poorhouse, workhouse, welfare office, charity hostel, etc.

As an adjective pokey

is of small volume, cramped.

pokey

English

Alternative forms

* poky

Adjective

(head)
  • of small volume, cramped
  • * 1913 ,
  • He loved the little pokey kitchen, where men’s boots tramped, and the dog slept with one eye open for fear of being trodden on; where the lamp hung over the table at night, and everything was so silent.
  • (slang) slow
  • (slang, of a car) fast
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • prison.
  • Synonyms

    * in the poke

    pogey

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pogie * pogy

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (chiefly, historical, countable) A poorhouse, workhouse, welfare office, charity hostel, etc.
  • Government financial assistance, particularly employment insurance.
  • * 1984 , Michiel Horn, The Great Depression of the 1930s in Canada (Canadian Historical Booklet no. 39), Canadian Historical Association, p 10:
  • There were no jobs for the unemployed, however. And thus many hundreds of thousands went “on the pogey ,” although all available evidence indicates that they loathed doing so. To accept relief was an admission of defeat and failure, a humiliating stigma, whether the relief was indirect or direct.

    Phrases

    * on the pogey

    Synonyms

    * pogey house * dole * (Canada) employment insurance, EI * (qualifier) unemployment insurance, UI