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Glite Dictionary
💋 A light kiss 💋 To kiss quickly 🪶 To poke repeatedly 🪶 A sharp bite 🐦 To eat little 🧺 A dry measure 🙄 To nag 📦 A large amount
to peck

to peck

18 2.7
To hit something lightly and repeatedly with a beak, like a bird
  • verb
  • /pɛk/
translation icon : picotear
  • Outraged, the hens poured out of the chicken coop after Oliver, pecking his tail.

Straw men are pecked eyeless by fearless birds.

Examples

  • The rooster was frightened, pecking my arms and leaving handfuls of feathers between my fingers.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Have you seen how the hens in the yard peck at each other?

    Ophelia (2019)

  • The only bird that will Peck at an eagle is the crow.

  • Occasionally they'll Peck out of my hand, but not often.

  • Inside the front door, a bird scurried around on the bare floor, pecking at the dust.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • A few chickens pecked and scratched in the swept dirt yard and under the porch.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • A yellow-rumped warbler grew so accustomed to me that he started to peck insects from my wool pants.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The sky pales to pink-white through the telephone wires; the birds peck the dewy evening lawn for worms.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The woodpecker began to peck at the tree trunk, searching for insects hidden beneath the bark.

  • As they sat outside, the sparrows would peck at the crumbs scattered on the ground.

Antonyms

pound
15 4.7

A heavy repeated hitting sound, like drums or rain

smash
7 3.0

A very hard hit in sport, like in tennis

Phrasal Verbs

to peck at
1 4.7

To eat only a little food and not show interest

to hen-peck
  • Slur
8.5

To keep criticizing a partner about small things

How Hard

to strike
553 2.4
to jab
19 3.3
poke
4 2.5
to peck
18 2.7
to tap
174 1.0

Surface Forms

peck infinitive
pecked past
pecked past participle
pecking present participle
pecks third person singular

Etymology

Peck The verb meaning 'to strike or hit lightly and repeatedly with a pointed object or beak' comes from the quick, pointed hits birds make with their beaks, so to peck is to give small, repeated strikes like a bird.