peck
See also: Peck
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pɛk/
- Rhymes: -ɛk
Audio (UK) (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle English pecken, pekken, variant of Middle English piken, picken, pikken (“to pick, use a pointed implement”). More at pick.
Verb
peck (third-person singular simple present pecks, present participle pecking, simple past and past participle pecked)
- (transitive, intransitive) To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).
- The birds pecked at their food.
- 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721:
- 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.
- 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M. Hill Co., OCLC 297099816:
- And the Wicked Witch said to the King Crow, "Fly at once to the strangers; peck out their eyes and tear them to pieces."
- (transitive) 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.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:
- This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas.
- 1713 September 14, letter to Joseph Addison, The Guardian, issue 160.
- I HAVE laid a wager, with a friend of mine, about the pigeons that used to peck up the corn which belonged to the ants.
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- 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 June 26, J. K. Rowling, chapter 1, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
- 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.
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Derived terms
- peck at
- pecking order
- peckish
- woodpecker
Translations
to strike or pierce with the beak or similar
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to do something in small, intermittent pieces
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to type key by key
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to type
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to kiss
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Noun
peck (plural pecks)
- An act of striking with a beak.
- A small kiss.
Translations
act of striking with a beak
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short kiss
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Etymology 2
Probably from Anglo-Norman pek, pekke, of uncertain origin.
Noun
peck (plural pecks)
- One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts.
- They picked a peck of wheat.
- 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Gross Value of the Fruit and Vegetables Sold Annually in the London Streets”, in London Labour and the London Poor:
- 22,110 bushels of French beans, at 6d. per peck, or 2s. per bushel
- 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Experience of a Fried Fish-seller, and of the Class of Customers”, in London Labour and the London Poor:
- I took his advice, and went to Billingsgate for the first time in my life, and bought a peck of oysters for 2s. 6d.
- A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
- She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.
- 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], OCLC 868004604, book:
- a peck of uncertainties and doubts
Translations
one quarter of a bushel, eight quarts
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great deal; a large or excessive quantity
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Etymology 3
Variant of pick (“to throw”).
Verb
peck (third-person singular simple present pecks, present participle pecking, simple past and past participle pecked)
- (regional) To throw.
- To lurch forward; especially, of a horse, to stumble after hitting the ground with the toe instead of the 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.
- 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, p. 97:
Noun
peck (uncountable)
- Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
- an occurrence of peck in rice
Derived terms
- pecky
Noun
peck (uncountable)
- (UK, slang, obsolete) Food.
- 1821, W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry
- Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening?
- 1821, W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry
References
- 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
Noun
peck
- Misspelling of pec.