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picador

American  
[pik-uh-dawr, pee-kah-thawr] / ˈpɪk əˌdɔr, ˌpi kɑˈðɔr /

noun

plural

picadors,

plural

picadores

  1. one of the mounted assistants to a matador, who opens the bullfight by enraging the bull and weakening its shoulder muscles with a lance.

picador British  
/ ˈpɪkəˌdɔː /

noun

  1. bullfighting a horseman who pricks the bull with a lance in the early stages of a fight to goad and weaken it

"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

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."

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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.

The books, originally published between 1998 and 2007, were resurrected this year by Picador.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

In 2022 Clanchy split from Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan and her publisher of more than 20 years.

From BBC • Nov. 4, 2025

Makeover goals “We wanted to bring out an eco-thriller dimension a little more,” says Angel, FSG’s publisher, of the Picador paperback, which will be published in March.

From New York Times • Dec. 27, 2023

By Jeff VanderMeer Picador: 336 pages, $19 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2023

Picador, a man mounted on horseback armed with a spear to incite the bull in a bull-fight.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin

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.