Definition

1. Verb:
   • To stir up or tend a fire: To add fuel to or poke a fire to make it burn more strongly.
   • To feed or supply a furnace, boiler, or engine with fuel: To maintain the operation of a heat-producing device by adding material to burn.
   • To encourage or incite (a strong emotion or activity): To stimulate or intensify a feeling, situation, or conflict.

Usage Examples

• Verb (Literal - tending a fire):
  • He had to stoke the furnace to keep the house warm.
  • Please stoke the campfire before it goes out.
• Verb (Figurative - encouraging an emotion/activity):
  • The politician's speech was designed to stoke public anger.
  • Rumors stoked fears of an economic crisis.

Advanced Usage

• "to stoke up": To increase the intensity of something, often by adding to it.
  • She stoked up the fire with more logs.
  • The article stoked up controversy about the new policy.
• "to stoke the flames (of something)": An idiom meaning to make a strong emotion or conflict more intense.
  • His comments only served to stoke the flames of the debate.

Variants and Related Words

• Stoker (noun): A person who tends a furnace or fire, especially on a ship or locomotive.
  • The stoker shovelled coal into the engine's firebox.

Synonyms

• Fuel (verb): To supply with or stimulate.
• Feed (verb): To supply with material.
• Incite (verb): To encourage violent or unlawful behavior.
• Kindle (verb): To start a fire or a feeling.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Stoke up: To add fuel to a fire or to increase an emotion or activity.
  • We need to stoke up the boiler for more steam.
  • The media stoked up anxiety before the storm.

Related Idioms

• Stoke the fires/coals/flames (of something): To make a situation, especially a conflict or strong emotion, more intense.
  • The new evidence stoked the fires of suspicion.

Verb

1. stir up or tend; of a fire