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peck
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
peck
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bird pecks (at) sth (=makes small movements with its head)
▪ Some birds were pecking at the remains of a sandwich.
at the bottom of the pecking order
▪ Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the pecking order.
pecking order
▪ Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the pecking order.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
bird
▪ Ahead of her - quite a way in the distance - she could see some birds pecking at crumbs on the pavement.
▪ Classical conditioning principles suggest, what is indeed the case, that the bird will come to peck at the lit key.
▪ Some birds gather and peck the concrete in the space the delegation has just been standing in.
▪ A bird pecking at food grains could have known without learning what food looks like, or it could have learnt it.
cheek
▪ He pecked her on the cheek.
chick
▪ The chicks pecked the conspicuous rice grains, which proves that they were eager to eat rice.
▪ Middleschoolers, their teachers tell me, are as endearing as chicks just pecking out of their shells.
▪ Newborn chicks will peck at an adult gull's bill - or even a model of one - without any prior experience.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Hens pecked at the corn scattered on the ground.
▪ The woodpecker's long beak is specially designed for pecking.
▪ There was a red mark where the pigeon had pecked her hand.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A surprising chaff inch flew down to peck at our crumbs.
▪ Beneath that principled veneer students were hammering out the usual adolescent pecking order.
▪ He himself had been but little pecked at.
▪ Males compete with one another for places in a pecking order.
▪ She pecked our hands for food and glared at us with her red eyes.
▪ This means that the rider can help his horse should he peck on landing or hesitate into a fence.
▪ We were woken at the crack of dawn by the pitter patter of seagulls as they pecked for their breakfast.
▪ You peck away at your computer, but it is hard for you to get motivated.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
give
▪ She gives him a peck on the cheek.
▪ She gave Denver a half peck of peas to sort and soak overnight.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He gave her a really big kiss. Not just a peck on the cheek.
▪ It takes several pecks for the chick to make a hole in the eggshell.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Dottie Newland is a peck of fun.
▪ I take the same two-hour bus and tram ride for the same old peck on the cheek.
▪ Just a peck on the cheek.
▪ Not bad, as the consequence of but a single peck!
▪ One peck on the head will kill them.
▪ Take your child along and let him cat his peck of dirt.
▪ The wife and kids took a peck at the visitor.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Peck

Peck \Peck\, n. [Perh. akin to pack; or, orig., an indefinite quantity, and fr. peck, v. (below): cf. also F. picotin a peak.]

  1. The fourth part of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; as, a peck of wheat. ``A peck of provender.''
    --Shak.

  2. A great deal; a large or excessive quantity. ``A peck of uncertainties and doubts.''
    --Milton.

Peck

Peck \Peck\, v. i.

  1. To make strokes with the beak, or with a pointed instrument.
    --Carew.

  2. To pick up food with the beak; hence, to eat.

    [The hen] went pecking by his side.
    --Dryden.

    To peck at, to attack with petty and repeated blows; to carp at; to nag; to tease.

Peck

Peck \Peck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pecked; p. pr. & vb. n. Pecking.] [See Pick, v.]

  1. To strike with the beak; to thrust the beak into; as, a bird pecks a tree.

  2. Hence: To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument; especially, to strike, pick, etc., with repeated quick movements.

  3. To seize and pick up with the beak, or as with the beak; to bite; to eat; -- often with up.
    --Addison.

    This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas.
    --Shak.

  4. To make, by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument; as, to peck a hole in a tree.

Peck

Peck \Peck\, n. A quick, sharp stroke, as with the beak of a bird or a pointed instrument.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
peck

c.1300, possibly a variant of picken (see pick (v.)), or in part from Middle Low German pekken "to peck with the beak." Related: Pecked; pecking.

peck

late 13c., "dry measure of one-quarter bushel," of unknown origin; perhaps connected with Old French pek, picot (13c.), also of unknown origin (Barnhart says these were borrowed from English). Chiefly of oats for horses; original sense may be "allowance" rather than a fixed measure, thus perhaps from peck (v.).

peck

"act of pecking," 1610s, from peck (v.). It is attested earlier in thieves' slang (1560s) with a sense of "food, grub."

Wiktionary
peck

Etymology 1 n. 1 An act of pecking. 2 A small kiss. vb. 1 To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird) or similar instrument. 2 (context transitive English) 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 (context rare English) To type in general. 8 To kiss briefly. Etymology 2

n. 1 One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts. 2 A great deal; a large or excessive quantity. Etymology 3

vb. 1 (context regional English) To throw. 2 To lurch forward; especially, of a horse, to stumble after hitting the ground with the toe instead of teh flat of the foot. Etymology 4

n. Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects. Etymology 5

n. (misspelling of pec English)

WordNet
peck
  1. n. (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"; "it must have cost plenty" [syn: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, muckle, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad, whole lot, whole slew]

  2. a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 2 gallons

  3. a United States dry measure equal to 8 quarts or 537.605 cubic inches

  4. v. hit lightly with a picking motion [syn: pick, beak]

  5. eat by pecking at, like a bird [syn: pick up]

  6. kiss lightly [syn: smack]

  7. eat like a bird; "The anorexic girl just picks at her food" [syn: pick at, peck at]

  8. bother persistently with trivial complaints; "She nags her husband all day long" [syn: nag, hen-peck]

Gazetteer
Peck, ID -- U.S. city in Idaho
Population (2000): 186
Housing Units (2000): 96
Land area (2000): 0.268318 sq. miles (0.694941 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.268318 sq. miles (0.694941 sq. km)
FIPS code: 61840
Located within: Idaho (ID), FIPS 16
Location: 46.473786 N, 116.425083 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 83545
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Peck, ID
Peck
Peck, MI -- U.S. village in Michigan
Population (2000): 599
Housing Units (2000): 253
Land area (2000): 1.010187 sq. miles (2.616372 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 1.010187 sq. miles (2.616372 sq. km)
FIPS code: 63260
Located within: Michigan (MI), FIPS 26
Location: 43.258223 N, 82.816428 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 48466
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Peck, MI
Peck
Wikipedia
Peck

A peck is an imperial and United States customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints (9.09 (UK) or 8.81 (US) liters). Two pecks make a kenning (obsolete), and four pecks make a bushel. Although the peck is no longer widely used, some produce, such as apples, is still often sold by the peck. Despite being referenced in the well-known Peter Piper tongue twister, pickled peppers are so rarely sold by the peck that any association between pickled peppers and the peck unit of measurement is considered humorous in nature.

Peck (disambiguation)

A peck is a unit of dry volume.

A common misspelling of 'pec' the common abbreviation for the Pectoralis major muscle.

Peck is also a derogatory term for members of a race of dwarf-like people in the film Willow.

Peck may also refer to:

  • Peck (surname)
Peck (surname)

Peck is a surname which can have two meanings. Either "one who dwells near the foot of a peak" or "one who deals in weights and measures". The name is thought to, but not proven to, originate in the Nottinghamshire/ East Midlands England, or Denbighshire in Wales.

Usage examples of "peck".

The crucial comparison is between B and E, since, although E has tasted the bead, it is amnesic and pecks it later.

For her this was no more apocalyptic than a handshake, a peck on the cheek.

I said, staring straight at Baggy, who, though he was pecking around the lady in front of him, at least was nodding at me.

I was sayin, I arroved at Oberlin, and called on Perfesser Peck for the purpuss of skewerin Kolonial Hall to exhibit my wax works and beests of Pray into.

Thus, his first battle had been like all the others, a blindsided slaughter in these hills, shredded by artillery that they could never reach and he and his fellow Kessentai pecked at by snipers that were impossible to distinguish through the mass of fire.

He was sitting at a desk, there, Bowie, when we went in, just pecking away at an old Oliver typewriter and I had to almost kick the chair out from under him.

To the left of the cist a round hole 6 or 8 inches in diameter has been pecked into the almost vertical face of the rock.

To his ears came only the cooing and fluttering of pigeons, pecking one another in their eagerness as they snatched up wet, gray chunks.

That plume was the signature of Le Corbeau, the bold French rascal who called himself the Crow and claimed the right to peck at those who traveled the night roads north from London.

Le Corbeau, the bold French rascal who called himself the Crow and claimed the right to peck at those who traveled the night roads north from London.

So, on the morning following he sent the Dominie a pig and a peck of fine flour, for which that quaint divine thanked him and prayed Heaven that he might send more.

She was tempted first by the covey of gray partridges she saw pecking at the ripe seeds of ryegrass and einkorn wheat.

Ole Golly leaned over and gave her a hard little peck on the forehead.

He would have turned back at the entrance, but Ivoire drove him on with fierce pecks and harsh cawing.

Judge said, staring out at Lady Justice, a starling perched on her head, several juncos pecking at seed in the scales.