picket

[ pik-it ]

noun

1. a post, stake, pale, or peg that is used in a fence or barrier, to fasten down a tent, etc.
2. a person stationed by a union or the like outside a factory, store, mine, etc., in order to dissuade or prevent workers or customers from entering it during a strike.
3. a person engaged in any similar demonstration, as against a government's policies or actions, before an embassy, office building, construction project, etc.
4. Military. a soldier or detachment of soldiers placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance.
5. Navy, Air Force. an aircraft or ship performing similar sentinel duty.

verb (used with object)

1. to enclose within a picket fence or stockade, as for protection, imprisonment, etc.:

   to picket a lawn; to picket captives.

2. to fasten or tether to a picket.
3. to place pickets in front of or around (a factory, store, mine, embassy, etc.), as during a strike or demonstration.
4. Military.
   1. to guard, as with pickets.
   2. to post as a picket.

verb (used without object)

1. to stand or march as a picket.

picket

/ ˈpɪkɪt /

noun

1. a pointed stake, post, or peg that is driven into the ground to support a fence, provide a marker for surveying, etc
2. an individual or group that stands outside an establishment to make a protest, to dissuade or prevent employees or clients from entering, etc
3. Alsopicquet a small detachment of troops or warships positioned towards the enemy to give early warning of attack

verb

1. to post or serve as pickets at (a factory, embassy, etc)

   let's go and picket the shop

2. to guard (a main body or place) by using or acting as a picket
3. tr to fasten (a horse or other animal) to a picket
4. tr to fence (an area, boundary, etc) with pickets

Derived Forms

• ˈpicketer, noun

Other Words From

• pick·et·er noun
• coun·ter·pick·et noun verb
• un·pick·et·ed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of picket¹

First recorded in 1680–90; from French piquet, equivalent to pike ² + -et ( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of picket¹

C18: from French piquet, from Old French piquer to prick; see pike ²

Example Sentences

The union created a pledge that readers can sign to say they will “not cross the picket line.”

From Digiday

BSO balked at that addition, explaining that signing the document would violate the contracts it has with its own unions and that it couldn’t ask its unionized workers to cross a picket line.

From Washington Post

In the meantime, workers remain on picket lines in multiple states.

From Washington Post

Groups like the San Francisco Parent Coalition have sprung up since last summer to help organize protests and picket school board meetings as a way to press for policy changes.

From Ozy

Undeterred, they regrouped in the baggage area, then went to Target to get supplies to make picket signs.

From Time

Strandf could photograph anything from a blind woman to a picket fence and make the image indelible.

From The Daily Beast

A bar chart showing quarterly GDP growth resembles the teeth of a saw, not a picket fence.

From The Daily Beast

After the march, the political convoy of picket-signs makes its way to a grandiose fast-food joint for pizza and beer.

From The Daily Beast

The one we parked in front of had an Astroturf lawn and white picket fence.

From The Daily Beast

She leapt over the brand-new white picket fence we built for her in a single bound.

From The Daily Beast

Many of them were wounded and the worst of these were put into a picket boat which had just that moment come along.

From Project Gutenberg

Hicks was puttering around the fire, evidently cooking supper, and Gregory was moving the picket rope of his horse to fresh grass.

From Project Gutenberg

It was therefore deemed advisable to picket the horses close to the tent, between it and the fire.

From Project Gutenberg

Left on a picket boat with Birdie to board my destroyer to an accompaniment of various denominations of projectiles.

From Project Gutenberg

Without warning, we found ourselves foul of a picket-line, and the vague forms of grazing horses loomed close by.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• sentry