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
-
Under New York law, climbing a traffic-light pole or perching on its crossbars is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.—
Antonio Ferme,
Variety,
14 June 2026
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Investigators in Weld County filed new charges last week against a woman who reportedly made 136 phone calls to the victims of her previous crimes from the jail's phones.—
Logan Smith,
CBS News,
14 June 2026
Noun
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Landry faces a minimum of 10 years and up to life in federal prison, according to federal prosecutors.—
Landon Mion,
FOXNews.com,
15 June 2026
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Prosecutors had sought seven years and seven months in prison.—
Reuters,
CNN Money,
15 June 2026
Noun
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The wave of prison violence is happening despite the deployment of military and police forces in several penitentiaries.—
Michael Rios,
CNN Money,
8 Dec. 2025
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Rhoden's biggest political victory this year was getting the state Legislature to sign off on a $650 million plan in September to replace the 141-year-old state penitentiary, an issue the Legislature had quarreled over for years.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
18 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pokey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pokey. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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