picket line

English edit

WOTD – 13 March 2020

Etymology edit

Horses on a beach tethered to a picket line (sense 1).

Employees of the BBC forming a picket line (sense 4) in front of Broadcasting House in Bristol, UK, during a strike in May 2005.

From picket (“stake driven into the ground; soldier or small unit of soldiers assigned to perform a duty; protester positioned outside a workplace, etc., during a strike; the protest itself”) + line.^[1]

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪkɪt laɪn/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪkɪt ˌlaɪn/
Hyphenation: pick‧et line

Noun edit

picket line (plural picket lines)

(rare) A line or rope held by one or many pickets, chiefly one used for tethering horses.
(military, rare) A barrier or fortification formed by pickets; a stockade.
(military) A boundary guarded by a picket (unit of soldiers).
A boundary created by workers participating in a strike, generally at the workplace entrance, which other workers are asked not to pass.
- 2022 August 10, “Network News: RMT's Lynch raises the prospect of a General Strike”, in RAIL, number 963, page 7, photo caption:
  RMT union members form a picket line outside Birmingham New Street on July 27, as part of a national dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

Translations edit

line or rope held by pickets

Italian: recinto con corda e picchetti m

barrier or fortification formed by pickets — see stockade

boundary guarded by a unit of soldiers

Finnish: rajatolppa
Italian: palizzata (it) f

boundary created by workers participating in a strike

Finnish: lakkovartio
Italian: picchetto di scioperanti m
Norwegian:
Nynorsk: streikevakt f
Spanish: piquete (es) m

References edit

^ “picket line, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2006; “picket line, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.