peck
Other forms: pecking; pecked; pecks
To peck is to jab or bite at something the way a bird does with its beak. A peck is also a unit of measurement, like when Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. (“Eight quarts” just didn’t sound right.)
Most birds peck at their food, and when a person eats in a bird-like way, they also peck. Another way to peck is to give someone a light kiss, a peck on the cheek. A completely different kind of peck is a unit of measurement. In the US, a peck is one quarter of a bushel, or two gallons of a dry substance. The verb sense of peck comes from 1500s thieves' slang, in which it meant "food."
Definitions of peck
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hit lightly with a picking motion
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eat like a bird
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eat by pecking at, like a bird
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kiss lightly
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bother persistently with trivial complaints
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a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 2 gallons
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type of:
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British capacity unit, Imperial capacity unit
a unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System; British units are both dry and wet
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British capacity unit, Imperial capacity unit
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a United States dry measure equal to 8 quarts or 537.605 cubic inches
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type of:
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United States dry unit
a unit of measurement of capacity for dry substances officially adopted in the United States Customary System
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United States dry unit
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(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
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synonyms:
batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad
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types:
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barrage, deluge, flood, flurry, inundation, torrent
an overwhelming number or amount
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haymow
a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation
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type of:
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large indefinite amount, large indefinite quantity
an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude
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barrage, deluge, flood, flurry, inundation, torrent
Pronunciation
US
/pɛk/
UK
/pɛk/
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘peck'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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