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peck

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To strike or pierce with the beak or bill.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pehk
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɛk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. ambitransitive

    To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).

  2. transitive

    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 do something in small, intermittent pieces.

  5. To seize and pick up with the beak, or as if with the beak; to bite; to eat; often with up.

  6. Kiss lightly

noun

  1. An act of striking with a beak.

  2. A small kiss.

  3. One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; equal to approximately 9092 cubic centimeters in the imperial system or 8810 cubic centimeters in the U.S. system.

  4. Similar units in other systems of measure, such as the Roman modius or Chinese dou.

  5. A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.

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

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (ambitransitive) To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).

Used this way, peck is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use peck

  • “The bird would peck at the window every morning, looking for food.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

fort peckjohn peckquick peckpeck dampeck order

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • peckernounInflected form

    Obscene terms for penis.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • peck atverbCompound term

    Eat like a bird.

  • pecking ordernounCompound term

    The organization of people at different ranks in an administrative body.

  • hen-peckverbCompound term

    Bother persistently with trivial complaints.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to strike or pierce with the beak

pickDatedbeakdealnag

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.