POKKI-RI ぽっきり
Meanings
1. Describes a hard, slender object snapping surprisingly easily and cleanly.
2. After an expression of quantity, especially a price, means exactly that amount and no more.
Examples
The branch—or walking stick—snapped cleanly.
枝（杖）がぽっきりと折れる。
After my boss severely reprimanded me, my spirit broke completely and I quit immediately.
上司から強く叱責されたので、心がぽっきり折れ、すぐに退職した。
The sweets are on special: three for exactly 1,000 yen.
１個500円のお菓子が、３個で1,000円ぽっきりで特売中。
Dogmatic Opinion
The representative image is a thin, hard thing snapping.
A tree branch is the classic POKKI-RI object. I assume the snack Pocky got its name from that branch-like snapping sensation.
Bones can also break POKKI-RI, but not a skull. Among human bones, I imagine the relatively long and slender ones.
A heart can break POKKI-RI too.
Sense 2 appears especially often in price expressions such as SEN-EN POKKI-RI. Besides “exactly,” it strongly suggests a bargain: only 1,000 yen, with nothing extra added.
Proximate Expression
snap
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Snap, break cleanly, exactly, only, and with nothing extra may fit. “1000円ぽっきり” can be “exactly 1,000 yen” or, in sales language, “only 1,000 yen—nothing more.” The physical and price senses are separate but both carry a crisp sense of a clean limit.
