Wiktionary

peck

See also: Peck

English edit

 
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Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English pecken, pekken, variant of Middle English piken, picken, pikken (“to pick, use a pointed implement”). More at pick.

Verb edit

peck (third-person singular simple present pecks, present participle pecking, simple past and past participle pecked)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).
    The birds pecked at their food.
  2. (transitive) To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.
    to peck a hole in a tree
  3. To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument, especially with repeated quick movements.
  4. 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, [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.
  5. To do something in small, intermittent pieces.
    He has been pecking away at that project for some time now.
  6. To type by searching for each key individually.
  7. (rare) To type in general.
  8. To kiss briefly.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Noun edit

peck (plural pecks)

  1. An act of striking with a beak.
  2. A small kiss.
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

Probably from Anglo-Norman pek, pekke, of uncertain origin.

Noun edit

peck (plural pecks)

  1. 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.
  2. A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
    She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.
Translations edit

Etymology 3 edit

Variant of pick (“to throw”).

Verb edit

peck (third-person singular simple present pecks, present participle pecking, simple past and past participle pecked)

  1. (regional) To throw.
  2. 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, published 2013, page 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 edit

Noun edit

peck (uncountable)

  1. Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
    an occurrence of peck in rice
Derived terms edit

Etymology 5 edit

Noun edit

peck (uncountable)

  1. (UK, slang, obsolete) Food.
    • 1821, W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry:
      Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening?
References edit
  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 6 edit

Noun edit

peck

  1. Misspelling of pec.
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