picador
Americannoun
plural
picadors,plural
picadoresnoun
Etymology
Origin of picador
1790–1800; < Spanish: literally, pricker, equivalent to pic ( ar ) to prick ( see 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
Turtle At Barcelona, one Sebastian Anaro Anzarez, "a former picador," entered a hotel, ordered cold-turtle soup.
From Time Magazine Archive
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 Stone comments, "Socrates looks more like a picador enraging a bull than a defendant trying to mollify a jury."
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.
