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• peck
  peck

  verb (used with object)

  to strike or indent with the beak, as a bird does, or with some pointed instrument, especially with quick, repeated movements.
• Peck
  Peck

  noun

  Annie Smith, 1850–1935, U.S. mountain climber.

peck

¹ American  

[pek] / pɛk /

verb (used with object)

• pecks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pecked,
  past participle,  past
• pecking
  present participle

1. to strike or indent with the beak, as a bird does, or with some pointed instrument, especially with quick, repeated movements.

2. to make (a hole, puncture, etc.) by such strokes; pierce.

3. to take (food) bit by bit, with or as with the beak.

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verb (used without object)

• pecks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pecked,
  past participle,  past
• pecking
  present participle

1. to make strokes with the beak or a pointed instrument.

noun

1. a quick stroke, as in pecking.

2. a hole or mark made by or as by pecking.

3. a quick, almost impersonal kiss.

   a peck on the cheek.

4. (in timber) incipient decay from fungi, occurring in isolated spots.

5. Slang. pecks. Also peckings food; grub.

verb phrase

1. peck at

   1. to nibble indifferently or unenthusiastically at (food).

   2. to nag or carp at.

      Stop pecking at me, I'm doing the best I can.

peck ² American  

[pek] / pɛk /

noun

1. a dry measure of 8 quarts; the fourth part of a bushel, equal to 537.6 cubic inches (8.81 liters).

2. a container for measuring this quantity. pk, pk.

3. a considerable quantity.

   a peck of trouble.

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Peck ³ American  

[pek] / pɛk /

noun

1. Annie Smith, 1850–1935, U.S. mountain climber.

2. Gregory, 1916–2003, U.S. actor.

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peck ¹ British  

/ pɛk /

verb

1. to strike with the beak or with a pointed instrument

2. to dig (a hole) by pecking

3. (tr) (of birds) to pick up (corn, worms, etc) by pecking

4. to nibble or pick (at one's food)

5. informal to kiss (a person) quickly and lightly

6. to nag

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noun

1. a quick light blow, esp from a bird's beak

2. a mark made by such a blow

3. informal a quick light kiss

peck ² British  

/ pɛk /

noun

1. a unit of dry measure equal to 8 quarts or one quarter of a bushel

2. a container used for measuring this quantity

3. a large quantity or number

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Peck ³ British  

/ pɛk /

noun

1. Gregory. 1916–2003, US film actor; his films include Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Gunfighter (1950), The Big Country (1958), To Kill a Mockingbird (1963), The Omen (1976), and Other People's Money (1991)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unpecked
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• pecking
  present
• pecked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• peck
  simple
• pecks
  simple
• have pecked
  perfect
• has pecked
  perfect
• am pecking
  progressive
• are pecking
  progressive
• is pecking
  progressive
• have been pecking
  perfect progressive
• has been pecking
  perfect progressive

Past

• pecked
  simple
• had pecked
  perfect
• was pecking
  progressive
• were pecking
  progressive
• had been pecking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will peck
  simple
• will have pecked
  perfect
• will be pecking
  progressive
• will have been pecking
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of peck¹

1300–50; Middle English pekken, peke, from Middle Dutch pecken, Middle Low German pekken; akin to pick ¹

Origin of peck²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English pek(ke); of uncertain origin

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Explanation

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

peck Peck pecks pecked pecking

But, in the foreground, magpies and crows are already swarming to peck at the soil.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Brian’s home sits on a dirt lot, where several chickens peck at the weeds next to a table under a large tarp that blocks the sun during hot summer months.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025

"You know what it’s like when you’re young, and you meet someone you like and they like you, and you got a peck on the cheek and that’s all you got," she said.

From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2024

The girl turned away before he could give her a peck on the head.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 19, 2023

Hazel gave Frank a peck on the cheek and ran to help.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Christine Peck, owner of the Sock Monkey Kids Shop in Cape May County, N.J., received a motion alert from the store’s Ring camera one day in August 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026

Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck discuss what the S-1 filing revealed about their finances and what this IPO means for Anthropic’s place in the A.I. race.

From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2026

First up, hosts Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers dig into what is causing inflation and why bananas should actually cost more than they do.

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026

Batter’s path was set when, at college, a librarian introduced him to a slender, exquisitely fashioned poetry quarterly called Peck & Peck: “about eighty pages of—and I know this sounds ridiculously dramatic—throat-grabbing, life-changing words.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Peck slides along the wall, nervous, like he’s scaling across some windows high up in the city.

From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera

Back in Beadnell, on the kind of grey blustery day when the rain pecks at your face, the Craster Arms has a steady stream of windbent visitors.

From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026

While some of the pecks are small, he said, “in the most extreme cases, the largest wounds can cover a big portion of the calves’ back and can be one meter long or even bigger.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

Every time the feisty bird's beak makes contact with the hard surface — at up to 20 pecks per second — the impact vibrates throughout its head and neck.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2022

Fremaux typically meets all filmmakers and casts on the top of the Palais steps with the standard European greeting of pecks on each cheek.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 3, 2021

“That does me good! That’s worth millions of money and pecks of praise. Oh, Marmee, I do try! I will keep on trying, and not get tired, since I have you to help me.”

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

Arkansas pecked out a deal with Arkansas-based Tyson Foods.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

But surely some American women can relate to feeling pecked or prodded, and pushed aside when they reach middle age.

From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2024

But it does need to survive being pecked by a bird or chewed by other small animals.

From NewsForKids.net ● Feb. 23, 2024

After the cicadas emerged in May 2021, fewer than 10% of the clay caterpillar models were pecked each week.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 19, 2023

Nearby, their ducks waddled about and their chickens pecked the ground, searching for bits of food.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

In fact, Kelly’s offense has done something even more improbable than reverse the Big Ten’s historic pecking order.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

In pre-season, the Croatian appeared to be Maresca's first choice holding midfielder but has since slid down the pecking order.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

In the Olympic hospitality pecking order, the premium lounges beat the leisure lounges and the hospitality pavilions, which provide shared havens for followers of multiple sports.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

They're slipping down the pecking order and they're the only team not using the budget cap in full.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Between the pecking hens and the chicken-poop smell, I couldn’t get Fern to go near the henhouse when she was five—let alone inside the chicken run.

From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia

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