peck - What does it mean?
'peck' hits on the web
You may have been searching for a specific social media @peck profile or the tag #peck
Definition of 'peck'Etymology 1
From (etyl) pecken, pekken, variant of (etyl) picken, . More at pick.
Verb
( en-verb)
To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird) or similar instrument.
- The birds pecked at their food.
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) , Chapter 2
- The rooster had been known to fly on her shoulder and peck her neck, so that now she carried a stick or took one of the children with her when she went to feed the fowls.
To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.
- to peck a hole in a tree
To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument, especially with repeated quick movements.
To seize and pick up with the beak, or as if with the beak; to bite; to eat; often with up .
- (Addison)
* Shakespeare
- This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas.
To do something in small, intermittent pieces.
- He has been pecking away at that project for some time now.
To type by searching for each key individually.
(rare) To type in general.
To kiss briefly.
* 1997 , , (w, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) , Chapter 1; 1998 ed., Scholastic Press, ISBN 0-590-35340-3, p. 2
- At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.
Derived terms
* pecking order
* peckish
* woodpecker
Noun
( en-noun)
An act of pecking.
A small kiss.
Etymology 2
Probably from (etyl) (pek), (pekke), of uncertain origin.
Noun
( en-noun)
One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts.
- They picked a peck of wheat.
A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
- She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.
* Milton
- a peck of uncertainties and doubts
Etymology 3
Variant of .
Verb
( en-verb)
(regional) To throw.
To lurch forward; especially, of a horse, to stumble after hitting the ground with the toe instead of teh flat of the foot.
* 1928 , (Siegfried Sassoon), Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man , Penguin 2013, p. 97:
- Anyhow, one of them fell, another one pecked badly, and Jerry disengaged himself from the group to scuttle up the short strip of meadow to win by a length.
Etymology 4
Noun
( -)
Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
- an occurrence of peck in rice
Derived terms
* pecky
Etymology 5
|
