picket Hear it!

picket Definition

picket (pikit)

noun

  1. a stake or slat, usually pointed, used as an upright in a fence, a hitching post for animals, a marker, etc.
  2. a group of soldiers or a single soldier stationed, usually at an outpost, to guard a body of troops from surprise attack
  3. a ship or airplane that patrols a defense perimeter
  4. a person, as a member of a labor union on strike, stationed outside a factory, store, or public building, often carrying a sign, to demonstrate opposition to certain views or practices, keep strikebreakers from entering, or dissuade people from buying

Etymology: Fr piquet < piquer, to pierce < pic, pike

transitive verb

  1. to enclose, shut in, or protect with a picket fence or palisade
  2. to hitch (an animal) to a picket
    1. to post as a military picket
    2. to guard (a body of troops) with a picket
  3. to place pickets, or serve as a picket, at (a factory, etc.)

intransitive verb

to serve as a picket (sense )

picket Related Forms
pick·eter noun
picket Synonyms

picket

n.

  1. A stake

    stake, pole, pillar; see post 1.

  2. A watchman

    patrolman, guard, union member, vedette, sentry, inlying picket.

picket Synonyms

picket

v.

  1. To strike

    walk out, blockade, boycott; see strike 2.

  2. To enclose

    imprison, fence, corral; see enclose 1.

picket Usage Examples

Object

  • site: A dozen or more lecturers picketed the site on Wandsworth Road, demanding that the future of the Faculty be protected.

Converse of object

  • fly: They formed flying pickets, going from factory to factory bringing more workers out.
  • organize: North East Wales Institute of HE - NATFHE organized strong pickets at all five entrances to main campus.
  • mount: And in Nov. they mounted a picket on Esso's HQ in London.
  • join: Dave Prentis will join pickets at the Judd Street entrance of Camden Town Hall at 11am tomorrow.
  • hold: The campaign will hold a picket for both hearings.
  • put: We had to put a picket on the Galliford job to get on it.

Adjective modifier

  • peaceful: What reasonable, sensible person would object either to a fair rent or to peaceful pickets?
  • mass: Mass picket outside Radio Oxford, Banbury Road at 1pm.
  • weekly: The weekly anti-war community picket [ leaflet ] is likely to be quickly targeted.
  • good: There were good pickets at council workplaces, with most members respecting picket lines.

Modifies a noun

  • fence: You are passing houses, trees, picket fences or whatever is in the street.
  • fencing: White picket fencing for external use can be used to form garden areas or define a pathway.
  • line: He also showed his support by visiting a cold miner's picket line during the 1984 strike to hand out warming whiskey.
  • boat: This was relayed to the mainland and they sent out a small picket boat to drop off some supplies.
  • duty: Already three enemy destroyers on picket duty have been sunk.
  • sign: I was now bearing witness to a group of people standing around with picket signs.

Modifying Another Word

  • then: If the picket line takes it in turns as official pickets then this rota should also be recorded.

Noun used with modifier

  • mass: Within a week, mass pickets were organized in Sydney & Melbourne docks.
  • radar: HMS Corunna 1948 Home Fleet, 4th Destroyer flotilla 1959 taken in hand for conversion to radar picket.

Browse dictionary entries near picket

  1. Pickering
  2. pickerelweed
  3. pickerel
  4. picker
  5. picked
  6. pickax
  7. pickaninny
  8. pickaback
  9. pick up
  10. Pick's disease
  1. picket fence
  2. picket line
  3. picketing
  4. Pickett
  5. picking
  6. pickings
  7. pickle
  8. pickled
  9. picklock
  10. pickoff