Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Frightful; causing fear, especially to children; uncanny: as, a pokerish place.
- Like a poker; stiff.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Colloq. U. S. Infested by pokers; adapted to excite fear.
- adjective colloq. Stiff like a poker.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective archaic, colloquial
unsafe ,dangerous - adjective archaic, colloquial
nervous ,uneasy
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It was "pokerish" moving about in the dark; but we thrust down our legs and found that there was dry chaff and hay there.
The Junior Classics — Volume 8 Animal and Nature Stories William Patten 1902
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Like all mountain roads which skirt precipices, it may seem "pokerish," but it is safe enough if the drivers are skilful and careful (all the drivers on this route are not only excellent, but exceedingly civil as well), and there is no break in wagon or harness.
Our Italy Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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"looked kind of pokerish," and he was glad they were in so comfortable a place.
Little By Little or, The Cruise of the Flyaway Oliver Optic 1859
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"I wish Uncle Jed hadn't said what he did," he mused, when fairly beyond the town, "it makes me feel kind of pokerish; why didn't I think to bring my gun along? If the folks he talks about would rob our house they would stop me on the road and take the money from me."
Brave Tom The Battle That Won Edward Sylvester Ellis 1878
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"A pokerish place," said Keene, as he followed Jounce into the room and gazed about him.
Five Thousand Dollars Reward A. Frank [pseud.] Pinkerton
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It is a narrow shelf, in some places scarcely more than a foot wide, rudely worked in the living rock, which falls off below in a steep and almost precipitous descent to the river; and although it did not quite realize the idea we had formed of it from the description of our guide, it was sufficiently pokerish to inspire the most daring mountaineer with caution.
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The Den was a pokerish cavern near Overset Pond, nine or ten miles to the northeast of the old Squire's place, about which clung many legends.
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But, as I wuz a-sayin ', though I couldn't deny some of his words, for truly its legs did seem to be at the least calculation a yard and a half long, specilly in the night, why they'd look fairly pokerish.
Samantha Among the Brethren, Complete Marietta Holley 1881
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It sounds so pokerish -- like human flesh, you know.
The Sleeping-Car, a farce William Dean Howells 1878
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If, indeed, such weapons there had been, Maud Elliott, the most reserved and diffident girl of her acquaintance, -- "stiff and pokerish," Ella called her, --- was the last person likely to employ them.
A Love Story Reversed 1898 Edward Bellamy 1874
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