stoke

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To poke, pierce, thrust.

   Ne short swerd for to stoke with point bityng / No man ne drawe ne bere it by his syde / Ne no man shal un to his felawe ryde / But o cours with a sharp ygrounde spere

2. 2
   verb

   To encourage a behavior or emotion.

   Stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song

3. 3
   name

   Ellipsis of Stoke-on-Trent, a city in Staffordshire, England.

   The main line of the L.N.W.R. passed to the west of the Potteries, and it is recorded that in August, 1846, two trains were run from Whitmore (the nearest station to Stoke) to Liverpool for the benefit of excursionists.

4. 4
   verb

   stir up or tend

5. 5
   noun

   An act of poking, piercing, thrusting

6. 6
   verb

   To feed, stir up, especially, a fire or furnace.

7. 7
   verb

   To attend to or supply a furnace with fuel; to act as a stoker or fireman.

8. 8
   noun

   Misconstruction of stokes, a unit of kinematic viscosity.

Etymology

From Middle English stoken, from Middle Dutch stoken (“to poke, thrust”) or Middle Low German stoken (“to poke, thrust”), from Old Dutch *stokon or Old Saxon *stokon, both from Proto-West Germanic *stokōn, from Proto-Germanic *stukōną (“to be stiff, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewg- (“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.