poker

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that pokes, especially a metal rod used to stir a fire.
2. n. Any of various card games played by two or more players who bet on the value of their hands.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who or that which pokes.
2. n. An iron or steel bar or rod used in poking or stirring a fire.
3. n. A small stick or iron used for setting the plaits of ruffs; a poking-stick.
4. n. An iron instrument used for driving hoops on masts. It has a flat foot at one end and a round knob at the other.
5. n. Any frightful object; a bugbear.
6. n. A game of cards played by two or more persons with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as in whist. After each player has deposited an ante or preliminary bet in the pool, hands of five cards are dealt. Any player not satisfied can demand in place of from one to five cards in his hand as many new ones from the undealt part of the pack; the eldest hand must then deposit an additional bet in the pool or withdraw from the game, the second hand having then the privilege of betting higher, or calling (that is, merely equaling the bet and demanding a snow of hands), or retiring, and so on all around. If all the players but one retire, that one takes the pool; if a player calls the bet, those who follow him may bet the same amount, and the highest hand wins the pool. The hands rank as follows. beginning with the lowest: the highest card in any hand; one pair; two pairs; three of the same denomination; a “straight” —a sequence of five cards not of the same suit (sometimes omitted); a flush—five cards of the same suit not in sequence; a full—three cards of the same denomination and a pair; four cards of the same denomination; and a straight flush—a sequence of five cards of the same suit. There are varieties of the game known as whisky-poker, straight poker, etc.
7. n. One of various kinds of wild ducks, especially the pochard.
8. n. In cotton manufacturing, a vertical rod or rack which sustains and gives motion to the bobbin or ring-rail of a roving or ring-spinning machine; also, a rod with similar functions in other machines: sometimes called a lifting-poker.

Wiktionary

1. n. poker All the four cards of the same rank.
2. n. One who pokes.
3. n. US, colloquial Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who pokes.
2. n. That which pokes or is used in poking, especially a metal bar or rod used in stirring a fire of coals.
3. n. A poking-stick.
4. n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The poachard.
5. n. A game at cards derived from brag, and first played about 1835 in the Southwestern United States.
6. n. Colloq. U. S. Any imagined frightful object, especially one supposed to haunt the darkness; a bugbear.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of various card games in which players bet that they hold the highest-ranking hand
2. n. fire iron consisting of a metal rod with a handle; used to stir a fire