English Explanatory Dictionary

pique

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.
  2. To excite (someone) to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest).
  3. To pride (oneself) on something.
  4. To excite or stimulate (oneself).
  5. To take pride in.
  6. To excite to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest.
  7. To express jealousy, resentment, etc. at someone; to become angry or annoyed.
noun
  1. Enmity, ill feeling; (countable) a feeling of animosity or a dispute.
  2. Irritation or resentment awakened by a social injury or slight; offence, especially taken in an emotional sense with little consideration or thought; (countable) especially in fit of pique: a transient feeling of wounded pride.
  3. In pique of honour: a matter, a point.
noun
  1. In piquet, the right of the elder hand to count thirty in hand, or to play before the adversary counts one.
verb
  1. To score a pique against (someone).
noun
  1. A chigger, chigoe, or jigger (Tunga penetrans), a species of tropical flea.
  2. midgie, sand fly, punkie, punky (US)
noun
  1. Alternative form of piqué (“a kind of corded or ribbed fabric made from cotton, rayon, or silk”).
noun
  1. Synonym of pica (“a disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances”).

Pronunciation

pēk /piːk/ /pik/ en-us-pique.ogg /ˈpiːkeɪ/ /ˈpikeɪ/ /piˈkeɪ/ /paɪk/

Word forms

pique piques piquing piqued

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from French piquer (“to prick, sting; to anger, annoy; (reflexive) to get angry; to provoke, stimulate; (reflexive) to boast about”), from Middle French piquer, picquer (“to prick, sting; to anger, annoy; (reflexive) to get angry”), from Old French piquer (“to pierce with the tip of a sword”), from proto-Romance or Vulgar Latin *pīccare (“to sting; to strike”) or *pikkāre, and then either: * Onomatopoeic; or * from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to knock; to peck; to pick; to prick”). If so, pique is a doublet of pick, pitch, and peck. The noun is borrowed from Middle French pique (“a quarrel; resentment”) (modern French pique), from piquer, picquer (verb); see above.

Synonyms

fret nettle sting aggravate annoy rankle ruffle antagonize bother disgruntle botherate bug get grate burn up bedevil cheese off devil exasperate frustrate get up grotch hack off hassle irk irritate jazz molest mommick nark nerve pee off peeve persecute pique piss off provoke rile rile up roil storm test someone's patience tick off trouble try one's patience vex wind up Idioms: boil someone's piss chap someone's hide get on someone's nerves get on someone's tits get on someone's wick get someone's back up get someone's dander up get someone's goat get someone's Irish up get someone's nanny get someone's nanny-goat get under one's goat

Related words

piquet repique pique-devant

Translations

Bulgarian: възбуждам Chinese Mandarin: 激起（兴趣 Chinese Mandarin: 好奇心） Czech: vzbudit Czech: vyvolat Spanish: picar Spanish: azuzar Spanish: encorajinar
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