Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US prison) to curry favour with a more powerful inmate or with the authorities.

1981

Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 264: Then, there’s the segment of prison society that seeks favor with the authorities or with anyone holding power over it. They stroke or grip the power brokers by playing up to them in hopes of receiving favors, now or in the future.

2. (US) to flatter; to trick, to deceive; offer half-truths.

1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 48: ‘It was easy to stroke him, and in no time at all he was begging me to move in with him’.
1980		G. Liddy Will 127: [Gerald] Ford called Rossides while we sat in his office. He stroked Rossides skillfully, calling him ‘Mr. Secretary’ and invoking Rossides’s residual renown as a football player.
1999		J. Maple Crime Fighter 103: If you asked the detectives if they talked to Narcotics about these cases, they’d stroke you by saying, ‘We work very, very closely together’.
2001		C. Stella Eddie’s World 90: I’m wondering [...] was that all it was, bullshit? There’s something in it for you, you weren’t stroking me about him.

3. (UK juv.) to steal [the thief’s hands run gently over the desired object].

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 stroke n. to steal.