Library / English Dictionary

PECK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A United States dry measure equal to 8 quarts or 537.605 cubic inches

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("peck" is a kind of...):

United States dry unit (a unit of measurement of capacity for dry substances officially adopted in the United States Customary System)

Meronyms (parts of "peck"):

dry quart; quart (a United States dry unit equal to 2 pints or 67.2 cubic inches)

Holonyms ("peck" is a part of...):

bushel (a United States dry measure equal to 4 pecks or 2152.42 cubic inches)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("peck" is a kind of...):

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)

Holonyms ("peck" is a part of...):

bushel (a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 4 pecks)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

Example:

a wad of money

Synonyms:

batch; deal; flock; good deal; great deal; hatful; heap; lot; mass; mess; mickle; mint; mountain; muckle; passel; peck; pile; plenty; pot; quite a little; raft; sight; slew; spate; stack; tidy sum; wad

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("peck" is a kind of...):

large indefinite amount; large indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "peck"):

deluge; flood; inundation; torrent (an overwhelming number or amount)

haymow (a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bother persistently with trivial complaints

Example:

She nags her husband all day long

Synonyms:

hen-peck; nag; peck

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "peck" is one way to...):

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off (express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Eat like a bird

Example:

The anorexic girl just picks at her food

Synonyms:

peck; peck at; pick at

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "peck" is one way to...):

eat (take in solid food)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Eat by pecking at, like a bird

Synonyms:

peck; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "peck" is one way to...):

eat (take in solid food)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

pecker (horny projecting mouth of a bird)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Hit lightly with a picking motion

Synonyms:

beak; peck; pick

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "peck" is one way to...):

strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

pecker (horny projecting mouth of a bird)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Kiss lightly

Synonyms:

peck; smack

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "peck" is one way to...):

buss; kiss; osculate; snog (touch with the lips or press the lips (against someone's mouth or other body part) as an expression of love, greeting, etc.)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot peck Sue

Credits

 Context examples: 

When my mother came down to breakfast and was going to make the tea, Miss Murdstone gave her a kind of peck on the cheek, which was her nearest approach to a kiss, and said: “Now, Clara, my dear, I am come here, you know, to relieve you of all the trouble I can. You're much too pretty and thoughtless”—my mother blushed but laughed, and seemed not to dislike this character—“to have any duties imposed upon you that can be undertaken by me. If you'll be so good as give me your keys, my dear, I'll attend to all this sort of thing in future.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When I attempted to catch any of these birds, they would boldly turn against me, endeavouring to peck my fingers, which I durst not venture within their reach; and then they would hop back unconcerned, to hunt for worms or snails, as they did before.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The result was a sharp peck on the end of his nose that made him cower down and ki-yi.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Not wretch enough yet!” said the sparrow; and perching upon the third horse, she began to peck him too.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Don't peck at one another, children.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And the Wicked Witch said to the King Crow, "Fly at once to the strangers; peck out their eyes and tear them to pieces."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

As for sounds, there was the steady drone of the snorers and a small occasional noise, a flickering or pecking that I could in no way account for.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The first objects that assume a distinct presence before me, as I look far back, into the blank of my infancy, are my mother with her pretty hair and youthful shape, and Peggotty with no shape at all, and eyes so dark that they seemed to darken their whole neighbourhood in her face, and cheeks and arms so hard and red that I wondered the birds didn't peck her in preference to apples.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

So intent were they upon each other that neither took note of his approach; until, when he was close upon them, the man threw his arm roughly round the damsel's waist and drew her towards him, she straining her lithe, supple figure away and striking fiercely at him, while the hooded hawk screamed with ruffled wings and pecked blindly in its mistress's defence.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She pecked him again and again.

(White Fang, by Jack London)