poke it with a stick

"Poke it with a stick" is an idiom and originates in one's coming across a motionless thing, possibly some sort of creature. One typically responds by poking it with a stick or any longish handy object one wouldn't mind possibly getting gooey when visual inspection alone fails to identify the thing. Verbal speculation with others is exhausted and one is urged to "poke it with a stick." By poking with a stick, one hopes to find if the thing will move (in which case, all run away), or to find if it seems soft or rigid or recently soft and now rigid, or if the entire thing or only a portion of it is present plus any other information poking a thing with a stick may yield. The stick allows one to investigate in the moment of discovery in situ, when it is unwise or disgusting to use a finger or toe. As an idiom, "poke it with a stick" means that a thing or situation is suspect and elicits morbid curiosity.

"Is that a snake?" "I don't know. Has it moved?" "I don't think so." "Let's poke it with a stick."
If you poke a guru with a stick, will you find the skin thick, or thin and already full of holes?

poke it with a stick by TheOneTrueJune December 10, 2013