English Explanatory Dictionary

peck

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).
  2. To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.
  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.
  5. To do something in small, intermittent pieces.
  6. To type by searching for each key individually.
  7. To type in general.
  8. To kiss briefly.
noun
  1. An act of striking with a beak.
  2. A small kiss.
noun
  1. One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; equal to approximately 9092 cubic centimeters in the imperial system or 8810 cubic centimeters in the U.S. system.
  2. Similar units in other systems of measure, such as the Roman modius or Chinese dou.
  3. A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
verb
  1. 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.
noun
  1. Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
noun
  1. Food.
noun
  1. Misspelling of pec.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A place in the United States:
  3. A city in Idaho.
  4. An unincorporated community in Sedgwick County and Sumner County, Kansas.
  5. A village in Michigan.
  6. A town in Wisconsin.

Pronunciation

/pɛk/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-peck.wav

Word forms

peck pecks pecking pecked

Etymology

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

Synonyms

fling hurl bung cast chuck chunk cook dash dump feck jerk heave hield hoy huck hurtle launch lob peck peg pick pitch precipitate project quoit shy slight skew sling thrill throw toss traject warp whang whip whop wing

Derived words

henpeck henpecked hunt and peck peck at peckingly pecking order peckish unpecked woodpecker peckproof woodpeck peckful pecky

Translations

Finnish: naputtaa Finnish: naputella
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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