to poke one's head
- phrasal verb
- As he stood on tiptoe, he poked his head over the fence to get a better view of the game.
Examples
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I seen a slithering, black monster poke its head up out of the water.
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She poked her head out of the window to see what was happening on the street.
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Poke your head inside... - check if he's been naughty or nice...
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And then I saw you poke your head out of that crate and I said to myself, "Dora!"
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He progressed, and walked up to the door of this thing, which was situated somewhere about here, and put his hand on the side of the door, and poked his head in, saw that there were some flashing lights like on a computer.
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The cat poked its head through the opening in the box, curious about its surroundings.
Synonyms
To stick out from something like a wall or table
To go into a place for a short time to look around
Antonyms
How Far
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'poke' (push/prod) applied to 'one's head' describes literally pushing or thrusting the head forward, so a learner who knows the words can infer the action. This is a common, literal motion construction found across many languages (e.g., Spanish 'asomar la cabeza'), making it immediately understandable at B1 level.
Etymology
Poke one's head comes from the simple action of poking your head forward through a small gap to 'look' or 'get attention'. Imagine someone quickly poking their head around a door to see, so the phrase now means to look or show yourself for a short time.