as in jail
a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody
joked about the time he passed out on the street and woke up in the pokey
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Recent Examples of pokey
The Embraceable Bra provides the support of underwire cups without an uncomfortably firm or pokey feeling.
—
Theresa Holland, Travel + Leisure, 15 Dec. 2023
Dropping the hammer from a stop gets it to 60 mph in just 4.1 seconds, which opens plenty of opportunities for maneuvering around traffic's pokey dullards.
—Austin Irwin, Car and Driver, 31 May 2023
Sir Paul Smith, one of London’s most respected menswear designers and tailors, started his eponymous label in a pokey shop in Nottingham in 1970 but now has 130 boutiques and counting across the globe.
—Mario Abad, Robb Report, 26 May 2023
That harks back to the stagecoach or pokey train eras when a governor could be incommunicado for days or weeks.
—George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
See All Example Sentences for pokey
Theresa Holland, Travel + Leisure, 15 Dec. 2023
Dropping the hammer from a stop gets it to 60 mph in just 4.1 seconds, which opens plenty of opportunities for maneuvering around traffic's pokey dullards.
—Austin Irwin, Car and Driver, 31 May 2023
Sir Paul Smith, one of London’s most respected menswear designers and tailors, started his eponymous label in a pokey shop in Nottingham in 1970 but now has 130 boutiques and counting across the globe.
—Mario Abad, Robb Report, 26 May 2023
That harks back to the stagecoach or pokey train eras when a governor could be incommunicado for days or weeks.
—George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
See All Example Sentences for pokey
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pokey
Noun
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However, on March 27, a paperwork error allowed Guzman to walk out of the Clayton County jail a free man.—
Peter D'Abrosca,
FOXNews.com,
10 Apr. 2025
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In the photo, Sada is dressed in an orange jail uniform while his expression consists of wide eyes and a stiff grin.—
Regina Cho,
VIBE.com,
9 Apr. 2025
Noun
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His lawyers said Mahdi's original attorneys put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or others who knew him and ignored the impact of months spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
11 Apr. 2025
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Alexander Smirnov was sentenced to six years in prison in January after pleading guilty to lying to his FBI handler about the Biden family's ties to a Ukrainian energy company -- in addition to a series of unrelated tax fraud charges.—
Alexander Mallin,
ABC News,
11 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Barnes, 67, was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in a Russian penitentiary in February 2024.—
Tanya Stukalova,
ABC News,
18 Apr. 2025
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The first penitentiaries weren’t built until the late 1700s, so more extreme sentences were deemed necessary to prevent discord.—
Brenna Ehrlich,
Rolling Stone,
29 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pokey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pokey. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
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