Poke.

To thrust or push against; to thrust or butt with the horns. Also to busy oneself without any definite object.

“Poking about where we had no business.”—Kingsley: Two Years Ago.

“At table he was hospitable and jecose, always poking good-natured fun at Luke.”—E. Lynn Lynton: Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg, chap. xii.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.