Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) to feed; to eat.

1900		Sydney Morn. Herald 14 Apr. 4/3: People who like to have their food carefully and tastefully prepared — who [...] do not merely ‘stoke’ when they sit at meals, but who eat and drink [...] artistically.
1916		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Dec. 95/2: We’ll run the tucker-joints outrselves and stoke you for five-and-twenty bob.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Before the War’ in Digger Smith 12: I likes to take me tucker plain an’ free: / [...] / So I can stoke with no one there to see.
1924		Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 17 Dec. 7/1: The men stoked themselves [...] with the roast beef of old England.

2. (Aus./US) of a person, to have a good time; of an object, to prove first-rate; to please or impress someone.

1978		Tracks (Aus.) Oct. 3: Long Reef . . . which is now our favourite spot and the surf and surfies are stoking [Moore 1993].
1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 9: stoke (out) – excite, please: ‘I’m going to stoke you with this song’.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 218: Nothing stoked Quinn as they walked around the lot.
2011		Big Issue (Cape Town) 10 Jan. 18/1: The one thing that really stokes me out is that in the past 15 years that’s changed. Music has become cool.

3. (drugs) to intensify or accentuate a mood.

2017

L. McInerney Blood Miracles 237: This is due in part to masterful manipulation of his drug intake to numb or stoke as needed.