Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Small, slow, or insignificant: Describes something that is unimpressively small, uncomfortably confined, or annoyingly slow in pace or progress.

2. Noun:

   • A jail or prison: A slang term for a correctional institution where people are held in legal custody.

Usage and Examples

• Adjective:

  • The progress on the project has been pokey. (The work is advancing very slowly.)
  • They lived in a pokey little apartment above the shop. (They lived in a very small and cramped apartment.)

• Noun:

  • He spent a night in the pokey for disorderly conduct. (He was detained in jail for one night.)
  • The sheriff threatened to throw them in the pokey. (The sheriff threatened to put them in prison.)

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• The adjective form often carries a negative connotation of being dull, boring, or frustratingly slow due to its small size or lack of excitement.
  • We're stuck in this pokey town with nothing to do.
• As a noun, it is informal and somewhat dated slang. It is often used with articles like "the" (e.g., ).

Variants and Related Words

• Poky (adj): An alternative spelling of the adjective form, with the same meaning (e.g., a room).
• Jail / Prison (n): More standard synonyms for the noun "pokey."

Synonyms

• Adjective: Cramped, confined, tiny, slow, sluggish, dull, backwater.
• Noun: Jail, prison, lockup, clink, brig, penitentiary.

Idioms and Common Phrases

• In the pokey: The standard idiom using the noun, meaning incarcerated.
  • If you're not careful, you'll end up in the pokey.

Adjective

1. small and remote and insignificant
   • a jerkwater college
   • passed a series of poky little one-horse towns
2. wasting time

Noun

1. a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)