poker

noun

1. A metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.
2. (historical)A tool like a soldering iron for making poker drawings.
3. One who pokes.

   “The guy next to him poked him in the ribs and said, “Check out the bazongas on this one!” Lee pivoted toward the rib poker and found himself looking straight into the face of Romeo Bouchard.”

4. A kind of duck, the pochard.
5. (Multicultural-London-English, slang)A knife.

   “Key sense with the super-soaker Longest poker, leave man stressed like yoga”

   “There is that guy that does with the pokings I step with my poker Play, cuz right, you might get folded”

6. (countable, uncountable)Any of various card games in which, following each of one or more rounds of dealing or revealing cards, the players in sequence make tactical bets or drop out, the bets forming a pool to be taken either by the sole remaining player or, after all rounds and bets have been completed, by those remaining players who hold a superior hand according to a standard ranking of hand values for the game.

   “As mesmerizing as it is to watch Kristen Kish whip up bacon and cinnamon waffles with boysenberry and strawberry jam, imagine playing poker with Hosea Rosenberg.”

7. (countable, uncountable)All the four cards of the same rank.
8. (countable, rare, uncountable)The scoring of four goals by a player in one match.

   “Greaves hit three hat-tricks, two pokers and five goals against West Brom on his way to a record-setting 41 league goals.”

   “Poker Face: Taty Castellanos strikes FOUR times for NYCFC vs. RSL”

   “Ibra has scored a "poker" on four separate occasions during his career: twice with Paris Saint-Germain and twice for Sweden. The most famed example must surely be his single-handed crushing of England in a friendly back in 2012, when the striker rounded off a 4-2 victory for the Swedes with a truly immense long-range overhead kick in the final minute.”

   “The only player who scored a poker at Nou Camp is Milinko Pantić. Curiously, despite his 4 goals, his team (Atlético Madrid) lost the game.”

   “Daka also became only the fifth player to score four or more in a Europa League match, and the second fastest after Willian José, whose 'poker' came in the space of 26 minutes for Real Sociedad at Vardar in 2017.”

9. (US, colloquial)Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear.

   “The very leaves on the horse-chesnuts[…]cling to the bough as if old poker was coming to take them away.”

verb

1. (transitive)To poke with a utensil such as a poker or needle.

   “The King continued pokering the fire with his back to the door, and took no notice of Lord Chesterfield.”

   “The lids have very pleasant designs pokered on with a hot needle.”

   “When she was gone Bell was afflicted by a mood that had her moving round the room, holding on to the yellow curtain, standing over her girls, stroking the sails of the model yacht, opening the drawer and looking at the broken brooch, pokering the fire, and shifting the kettle's position on the hearth.”

2. To play poker.

   “Then we went to Mead's and pokered until morning.”

   “Papa liked nothing better than a game of poker . His pokering habits caused Mama grave anxiety.”

   “"He ran with and pokered with us boys,” Bob Paine would recall fifty years later, “ the darndest, pepperyest, finest companion a fellow could ask.””

   ““Yeah,” Lemming mutters. “We're pokering, so shut the fuck up.” “I raise five,” Blake announces.”