pecking order

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR pecking order ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Animal Behavior. a dominance hierarchy, seen especially in domestic poultry, that is maintained by one bird pecking another of lower status.

a sequence or hierarchy of authority in an organization or social group.

Sometimes peck order.

Origin of pecking order

First recorded in 1925–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for pecking order

hierarchy, dominance, order, position, scale, grouping, placing, ranking

British Dictionary definitions for pecking order

pecking order

noun

Also called: peck order a natural hierarchy in a group of gregarious birds, such as domestic fowl

any hierarchical order, as among people in a particular group

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

pecking order in Culture

pecking order

A hierarchy within a social group or community, in which those members at the top assume positions of leadership, authority, and power. The expression originated from a description of social behavior among chickens, which attack each other by pecking to establish dominance.

Idioms and Phrases with pecking order

pecking order

The hierarchy of authority in a group, as in On a space mission, the astronauts have a definite pecking order. This expression, invented in the 1920s by biologists who discovered that domestic poultry maintain such a hierarchy with one bird pecking another of lower status, was transferred to human behavior in the 1950s.