stoke

verb

ˈstōk 

stoked; stoking

transitive verb

1

: to poke or stir up (a fire, flames, etc.) : supply with fuel

2

: to feed abundantly

3

: to increase the activity, intensity, or amount of

… limiting the number of cars available … will help stoke demand for the car.

—Keith Naughton

intransitive verb

: to stir up or tend a fire (as in a furnace) : supply a furnace with fuel

Synonyms of stoke

• increase
• accelerate
• expand
• boost
• augment
• raise

Examples of stoke in a Sentence

The engineer stoked the coals.

The new ad campaign has helped to stoke sales.

Poor revenue figures have stoked concerns about possible layoffs.

Recent Examples on the Web

But Jeremayah Maniero was not stoked about a baseball game at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday. —Chilekasi Adele, CBS News, 9 June 2026

One day, the Santa Ana winds stoke a raging fire on the Getty Center hill, threatening the mansions south of Sunset. —Zinzi Clemmons, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026

That sparked a selloff on Thursday that got further stoked by Friday’s strong jobs report. —Jason Ma, Fortune, 7 June 2026

Far from moderating political passions, Freneau stoked hatred of his political rivals, the Federalists, and their leader, Alexander Hamilton, even publishing an anti-Semitic poem comparing Hamilton’s work at the Treasury Department to that of Jewish moneylenders. —Jeffrey Rosen, The Atlantic, 6 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Dutch stoken; akin to Middle Dutch stuken to push

First Known Use

1683, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for stoke

• bloke
• boeck
• broke
• choke
• cloak
• cloke
• croak
• folk
• hoke
• joke
• moke
• oak

Kids Definition

stoke

verb

ˈstōk 

stoked; stoking

1

: to stir up or tend (as a fire)

2

: to supply (as a furnace) with fuel

3

: to feed plentifully

stoker noun

Medical Definition

stoke

noun

ˈstōk 

: the cgs unit of kinematic viscosity being that of a fluid which has a viscosity of one poise and a density of one gram per cubic centimeter