Dangerous; alarming; “eerie.”

1

1827.  A patriarchal ram, who would fight anything but a pokerish looking ducking gun.—Mass. Spy, Nov. 21.

2

1829.  The road led through a pokerish bit of wood, and it was beginning to be dark.—Id., Jan. 28.

3

1830.  Duff held out a pokerish looking pistol with a percussion lock at him.—Id., May 19.

4

1839.  We’d better yet have a light—my place here in front is cursed pokerish.—C. F. Hoffman, ‘Wild Scenes,’ ii. 67 (Lond.).

5

1849.  The vein is ten feet high, so that there was no difficulty about walking in; but it looked amazingly pokerish, that dark and dingy cellar.—Knick. Mag., xxxiv. 324 (Oct.).

6

1850.  

                  Reflection ’s pokerish,
Like walking on those saw-mill logs;—step quick,
And you go safe; to dally is to sink.
S. Judd, ‘Philo,’ p. 52 (Boston).    

7

1853.  There is something pokerish about a deserted dwelling, even in broad daylight; but here in the obscure wood, and the moon filtering unwillingly through the trees!—Lowell, ‘Prose Works: A Moosehead Journal,’ i. 6. (N.E.D.)

8

1859.  

        Moreover, you must need a wife
  To see to shirts and things,
And keep you from the pokerish path
  That ’s full of traps and springs,
As well as to protect your cash
  From its proverbial wings.
Knick. Mag., liii. 212 (Feb.).    

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