peck
Definitions
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WordNet 3.6
- v peck bother persistently with trivial complaints "She nags her husband all day long"
- v peck eat like a bird "The anorexic girl just picks at her food"
- v peck eat by pecking at, like a bird
- v peck hit lightly with a picking motion
- v peck kiss lightly
- n peck a United States dry measure equal to 8 quarts or 537.605 cubic inches
- n peck a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 2 gallons
- n peck (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent "a batch of letters","a deal of trouble","a lot of money","he made a mint on the stock market","see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos","it must have cost plenty","a slew of journalists","a wad of money"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Interesting fact: A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
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- Peck A great deal; a large or excessive quantity. "A peck of uncertainties and doubts."
- n Peck pĕk A quick, sharp stroke, as with the beak of a bird or a pointed instrument.
- Peck Hence: To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument; especially, to strike, pick, etc., with repeated quick movements.
- Peck The fourth part of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; as, a peck of wheat. "A peck of provender."
- Peck To make strokes with the beak, or with a pointed instrument.
- Peck To make, by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument; as, to peck a hole in a tree.
- Peck To pick up food with the beak; hence, to eat. "The hen] went pecking by his side."
- Peck To seize and pick up with the beak, or as with the beak; to bite; to eat; -- often with up. "This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas."
- Peck To strike with the beak; to thrust the beak into; as, a bird pecks a tree.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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- peck To strike with the beak, as a bird; hence, to strike lightly with some sharp-pointed instrument.
- peck To pick up or take with the beak.
- peck To make or effect by striking with the beak or any pointed instrument: as, to peck a hole in a tree.
- peck To make strokes or light blows with the beak or some pointed instrument.
- peck To attack repeatedly with petty criticism; carp at.
- n peck A stroke with the beak, or with some sharp-pointed tool.
- n peck Meat victuals; food.
- n peck A quantity; a great deal.
- n peck Specifically The fourth part of a bushel, a dry measure of 8 quarts for grain, pulse, etc. The standard British or imperial peck contains 2 gallons or 554.548 cubic inches. Four pecks make a bushel, and eight bushels a quarter. The old Scotch peck, the fourth part of a firlot, or the sixteenth part of a boll, wheu of wheat, was slightly less than the imperial peck; but when of barley was equal to about 1.456 imperial pecks. (See firlot, boll.) In the United States a peck is the fourth part of a Winchester bushel—that is, equals 537.6 cubic inches.
- n peck A peck-measure.
- peck To fall or pitch forward: said in particular of a horse when he touches the ground with his toe first in a stride, instead of stepping on the whole foot.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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- n Peck pek a measure of capacity for dry goods=2 gallons, or one-fourth of a bushel: a great amount.
- v.t Peck pek to strike with the beak: to pick up with the beak: to eat: to strike with anything pointed: to strike with repeated blows
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Quotations
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“A man must eat a peck of salt with his friend, before he knows him.”
Idioms
Pecking order - The pecking order is the order of importance or rank.
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Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Perh. akin to pack,; or, orig., an indefinite quantity, and fr. peck, v. (below): cf. also F. picotin, a peak
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Pick.
Usage
In literature:
The nasty spiteful thing, it ought to be pecked to death.
"Featherland" by George Manville Fenn
Peck away, lad, and think you're a squirrel eating your winter store.
"To Win or to Die" by George Manville Fenn
As he went, he appeared to be pecking away at the fruit of various trees over which he passed.
"In the Eastern Seas" by W.H.G. Kingston
It consisted of the second lieutenant and master, Peter Mudge, Tommy Peck, and I.
"Twice Lost" by W.H.G. Kingston
One peck green tomatoes, twelve large red onions, one large cauliflower, two heads celery, two heads garlic, six red peppers.
"My Pet Recipes, Tried and True" by Various
Then peck, peck, peck, went the little bills on the eyelids of the fox.
"Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children" by Mabel Powers
Peck sells beer, and milk is a deal better.
"Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Vol. 5" by Louisa M. Alcott
I went to another tree in western New York, and got a peck or more.
"Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Second Annual Meeting" by Northern Nut Growers Association
He was Sim Peck, the blacksmith-constable from Severn Corners.
"Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies" by Alice B. Emerson
He came over and then I could feel him pecking at the peaches through the woven covering.
"The Enchanted Island" by Fannie Louise Apjohn
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In poetry:
He crowds his gentle wives aside
Or pecks them on the head;
Sometimes I think it would be best
If he were never fed.
Or pecks them on the head;
Sometimes I think it would be best
If he were never fed.
"A Question" by Ellis Parker Butler
So still—the watching woodland peers
And pecks about them, butterflies
Light on her hand—a flower; eve hears
Two questions, two replies—
O love that never dies!
And pecks about them, butterflies
Light on her hand—a flower; eve hears
Two questions, two replies—
O love that never dies!
"Lovers" by Richard Le Gallienne
Yet as I gently sought to pry
It loose, it glared at me;
You would have thought its foe was I,
It pecked so viciously;
So fiercely fought, as soft I sought
From death to set it free.
It loose, it glared at me;
You would have thought its foe was I,
It pecked so viciously;
So fiercely fought, as soft I sought
From death to set it free.
"Old Boy Scout" by Robert W Service
Before the blackbird pecked the turf they woke;
At dawn the deer's wet nostrils blew their last.
To forest, haunt of runs and prime repast,
With paying blows, the yokel strained his yoke.
At dawn the deer's wet nostrils blew their last.
To forest, haunt of runs and prime repast,
With paying blows, the yokel strained his yoke.
"Forest History" by George Meredith
What she said I won't tell you; but you married men,
As knows wot it is to be pecked by a hen,
Wot I means yer to guess pretty plainish 'ull find,
When I tells you she gone me "a bit of her mind."
As knows wot it is to be pecked by a hen,
Wot I means yer to guess pretty plainish 'ull find,
When I tells you she gone me "a bit of her mind."
"Bedfordshire Ballad - IV" by E W Bowling
To so much strength, those overborne by it
Seemed girls, and death came to it like a girl,
Came to it, through the soft air, like a bird-
So that the boy is like a girl, is like a bird
Standing on something it has pecked to death.
Seemed girls, and death came to it like a girl,
Came to it, through the soft air, like a bird-
So that the boy is like a girl, is like a bird
Standing on something it has pecked to death.
"The Bronze David Of Donatello" by Randall Jarrell
In news:
'Yo, I'm trying to stay off Sheen's radar': Josh Peck takes over Sheen's iconic role in 'Red Dawn' remake.
Remaking iconic 'Red Dawn' was a body-building blast for star Josh Peck.
Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise, Jeffrey Dean Morton, Edwin Hodge.
Dan Bradley Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas.
Grace was born Dec 24 , 1928, in Storm Lake, to Harold and Mary Peck.
It is my pleasure on behalf of the Democratic County Legislator's Caucus to publicly invite St Lawrence County Legislator Don Peck, District 5 to become a voting member of our caucus.
Julie Ann Elliott Peck and John Lawrence Ellington Jr will be united in marriage at 7 pm Friday at Spring Bayou Baptist Church.
Oliver Peck et al. Shopping & Services.
Director Daniel Bogado has received a Rory Peck Award for his documentary on the largely hidden war taking place in Sudan's Nuba mountains.
Animal-rights groups peck away at the City Council as it considers two different ordinances to repeal the foie gras ban.
Freelance journalists' films on Libya, Syria, Sudan win Rory Peck Awards.
Freelance journalists' films on Libya, Syria, Sudan win Rory Peck Awards.
The crash was reported about 7:15 pm on the southbound side of the freeway , just south of Peck Road, California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball said.
Longmont SWAT officers assisted other local and federal authorities to arrest Shane Snyder, 24, a fugitive wanted on several outstanding felony warrants, at Clover Basin Village, 630 Peck Drive, on Thursday, Dec 6, 2012.
Otillian Peck Fuller , 92 years old, of Reidland, joined the love of her life, Carl F Fuller , November 17, 2012, at 11:38 pm at her residence.
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In science:
High resolution observations (Peck & Taylor 1998b) indicate that the absorbing gas might lie in a circumnuclear torus, a large number of clouds along the line of sight to the radio continuum source, or most likely, a combination of both.
HI Absorption in the Gigamaser Galaxy TXS 2226-184 and the Relation between HI Absorption and Water Emission
This source was initially found to exhibit H i absorption in VLA observations in 1995 (Peck, Taylor & Conway 1999).
HI Absorption in the Gigamaser Galaxy TXS 2226-184 and the Relation between HI Absorption and Water Emission
Further evidence for a torus in this source is found in free-free absorption (Peck & Taylor 2001).
HI Absorption in the Gigamaser Galaxy TXS 2226-184 and the Relation between HI Absorption and Water Emission
Specific behaviours such as leadership, maintenance of the proximity when the female or the ducklings move nearer or further away, pecking and avoidance were expressed in frequencies (n/hour) and averaged on a weekly basis.
Post-hatching parental care behaviour and hormonal status in a precocial bird
It was negatively correlated with sleeping, preening, distance (>1 m) and female pecking (variable loads between -0.42 and -0.25), and positively correlated with contact, female leadership and following (variable loads between 0.34 and 0.40).
Post-hatching parental care behaviour and hormonal status in a precocial bird
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