stoke

• (UK) enPR: stōk, IPA^(key): /stəʊk/
• Rhymes: -əʊk
• (US) enPR: stōk, IPA^(key): /stoʊk/

From Middle English stoken, from Middle Dutch stoken (“to poke, thrust”) or Middle Low German stoken (“to poke, thrust”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stukōną (“to be stiff, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teug- (“to push, beat”). Cognate with Middle High German stoken (“to pierce, jab”), Norwegian Nynorsk stauka (“to push, thrust”). Alternative etymology derives the Middle English word from Old French estoquer, estochier (“to thrust, strike”), from the same Germanic source. More at stock.

stoke (third-person singular simple present stokes, present participle stoking, simple past and past participle stoked)

1. (transitive) To poke, pierce, thrust.
   • (1387 – 1400) Chaucer, The Knight's Tale, Part IV.

     Ne short swerd, for to stoke with poynt bitynge, / No man ne drawe, ne bere it by his syde.

From a back-formation of stoker, apparently from Dutch stoker, from Dutch stoken (“to kindle a fire, incite, instigate”), from Middle Dutch stoken (“to poke, thrust”), from stock (“stick, stock”), see: tandenstoker. Ultimately the same word as above.

stoke (third-person singular simple present stokes, present participle stoking, simple past and past participle stoked)

1. (transitive) To feed, stir up, especially, a fire or furnace.
2. (intransitive) To attend to or supply a furnace with fuel; to act as a stoker or fireman.

• stokehole

• stoker

Misconstruction of stokes

stoke

1. (physics) Misspelling of stokes. (A unit of kinematic viscosity equal to that of a fluid with a viscosity of one poise and a density of one gram per millilitre)

• ketos, tokes

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stoke

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of stoken