pokey
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- Small, slow, or insignificant: Describes something that is unimpressively small, uncomfortably confined, or annoyingly slow in pace or progress.
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
- small and remote and insignificant
- a jerkwater college
- passed a series of poky little one-horse towns
- wasting time
Noun
- 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)