pokie

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

[edit]

Etymology 1

[edit]

From clipping of poker machine +‎ -ie (diminutive suffix).

Noun

[edit]

pokie (plural pokies)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang, chiefly in the plural) Synonym of poker machine, an electronic game of chance played for money, especially slot machines.
    • 2004, Bernard Salt, The Big Shift, page 77:
      For several decades until the early 1990s, Echuca–Moama existed in the consciousness of Melburnians as the destination for pokie bus-trips. All of this changed when the Kennett Government legalised pokies in Victoria in 1993.
    • 2006, author not known, Sydney City Guide, Lonely Planet, page 148,
      In reality, the cheap beer and walls of pokies attract anyone and everyone.
    • 2008, Catherine Deveny, Say When, page 171:
      None of these people around me punching the pokies has walked in here today expecting to be a loser.
    • 2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:
      I was also shocked that the poker machines (which we call pokies back home) were on full display, as in Australia, they legally have to be in a separate room.
Derived terms
[edit]

Etymology 2

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Shortening of a mispronunciation of genus name Poecilotheria

Noun

[edit]

pokie (plural pokies)

  1. (informal) Any of several species of arboreal tarantula in the genus Poecilotheria.

Further reading

[edit]