as in jail
a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody
joked about the time he passed out on the street and woke up in the pokey
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Recent Examples of pokey
There are reasons people are afraid of the dentist; all of those pokey instruments going into soft, sensitive places.
—
Erin Qualey, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2025
Thirty-three years since its founder began cutting up fabrics in a pokey South London flat, the house of McQueen’s headquarters now inhabit a six-story, 30,000-square-foot building in London’s Clerkenwell.
—Hayley Maitland, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2024
This pokey lime green plant is a bit of a chameleon, changing colour when stressed by lack of water or bad weather.
—Katy Kelleher, refinery29.com, 29 July 2024
Image: Cornell The researchers equipped their prototype robot with two different kinds of texture units: Goosebumps, which form rounded domes when inflated, and spikes, which include rigid little pokey bits.
—IEEE Spectrum, 16 May 2018
See All Example Sentences for pokey
Erin Qualey, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2025
Thirty-three years since its founder began cutting up fabrics in a pokey South London flat, the house of McQueen’s headquarters now inhabit a six-story, 30,000-square-foot building in London’s Clerkenwell.
—Hayley Maitland, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2024
This pokey lime green plant is a bit of a chameleon, changing colour when stressed by lack of water or bad weather.
—Katy Kelleher, refinery29.com, 29 July 2024
Image: Cornell The researchers equipped their prototype robot with two different kinds of texture units: Goosebumps, which form rounded domes when inflated, and spikes, which include rigid little pokey bits.
—IEEE Spectrum, 16 May 2018
See All Example Sentences for pokey
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pokey
Noun
-
Mueller, whom Northside ISD placed on leave, remained in the Bexar County jail on $95,000 bail and faced up to life in prison if convicted.—
JJ Velasquez,
San Antonio Express-News,
3 May 2026
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Mengtong / China News Service/VCG via Getty Images The restrictions have prevented Allen from communicating with anyone besides his legal team, as well as accessing the commissary or resources such as jail tablets, the filing states.—
Dennis Romero,
NBC news,
3 May 2026
Noun
-
Or worse, to turn it into a sort of prison sentence.—
James Wood,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
-
The rights lawyer fainted twice in prison on Friday in the northwestern city of Zanjan, her foundation said, and was admitted to a local hospital.—
Adam Schreck,
Fortune,
3 May 2026
Noun
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In the early 1970s, the penitentiary remained poorly funded, and prison officials hoped to make money on the rodeo.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
9 May 2026
-
Al Capone was transferred by train to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta.—
Kori Rumore,
Chicago Tribune,
4 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pokey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pokey. Accessed 10 May. 2026.
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