picador
Americannoun
plural
picadors,plural
picadoresnoun
Etymology
Origin of picador
1790–1800; < Spanish: literally, pricker, equivalent to pic ( ar ) to prick ( pique 1 ) + -ador < Latin -ātor -ator
Explanation
A picador is a bullfighter with a particular job: to jab the bull with a sharp spear, in order to get him angry and riled up. You are only likely to come across the word picador in the context of bullfighting. There are usually two picadors on horseback who poke the bull with lances called picas to get him really mad before his confrontation with the matador, who is the main bullfighter. In Spanish, picador means "pricker" or "piercer," from picar, "to pierce."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He meant he wanted to be a picador with the house’s heritage rather than just aiming for the heart of the nouveau riche.
From New York Times • Sep. 29, 2011
Captain Canedo, who is still alive, kills a! rejon —that is, he rides first as a picador, then dismounts and finishes his job as an espada.
From Time Magazine Archive
As the jeep pulled back, he saw a picador with a sharper lance astride a well-padded horse nearby and whirled to charge the horse.
From Time Magazine Archive
Unamuno places guilt as deftly as a picador against whose fearful horse's flank the blundering bull of social judgment charges.
From Time Magazine Archive
Out on the plateau beyond the town employees of the bull-ring exercised picador horses, galloping them stiff-legged on the hard, sun-baked fields behind the bull-ring.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
