picket
Americannoun
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pickets
plural
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a post, stake, pale, or peg that is used in a fence or barrier, to fasten down a tent, etc.
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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.
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a person engaged in any similar demonstration, as against a government's policies or actions, before an embassy, office building, construction project, etc.
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Military. a soldier or detachment of soldiers placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance.
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Navy, Air Force. an aircraft or ship performing similar sentinel duty.
verb (used with object)
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pickets,
present (3rd person singular)
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picketed,
past participle, past
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picketing
present participle
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to enclose within a picket fence or stockade, as for protection, imprisonment, etc..
to picket a lawn; to picket captives.
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to fasten or tether to a picket.
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to place pickets in front of or around (a factory, store, mine, embassy, etc.), as during a strike or demonstration.
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Military.
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to guard, as with pickets.
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to post as a picket.
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verb (used without object)
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pickets,
present (3rd person singular)
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picketed,
past participle, past
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picketing
present participle
noun
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a pointed stake, post, or peg that is driven into the ground to support a fence, provide a marker for surveying, etc
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an individual or group that stands outside an establishment to make a protest, to dissuade or prevent employees or clients from entering, etc
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Also: picquet. a small detachment of troops or warships positioned towards the enemy to give early warning of attack
verb
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to post or serve as pickets at (a factory, embassy, etc)
let's go and picket the shop
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to guard (a main body or place) by using or acting as a picket
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(tr) to fasten (a horse or other animal) to a picket
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(tr) to fence (an area, boundary, etc) with pickets
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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picketsimple
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picketssimple
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have picketedperfect
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has picketedperfect
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am picketingprogressive
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are picketingprogressive
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is picketingprogressive
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have been picketingperfect progressive
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has been picketingperfect progressive
Past
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picketedsimple
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had picketedperfect
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was picketingprogressive
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were picketingprogressive
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had been picketingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of picket
First recorded in 1680–90; from French piquet, equivalent to pike 2 + -et ( def. )
Explanation
A picket is a vertical wooden board in a fence. You might have a white picket fence enclosing your whole front yard, so your little dog can't escape. Besides the "wooden stake or strip" meaning, you can also use picket as a verb to mean "protest or strike." When disgruntled workers go on strike, they often picket outside their workplace, holding signs and chanting. You can also call one of these protesting workers a picket. The original meaning, from the 1680s, is "a pointed stake used as a defensive weapon." And the original picket line was a line of military troops.
Vocabulary lists containing picket
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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"Tinker v. Des Moines": Excerpts from Justice Black's Dissenting Opinion
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This Week in Words: September 14–20, 2019
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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.
See Examples For:
The picket by 33,000 machinists secured the workers a 38% wage hike over their four-year contract and demonstrated the power of the Seattle-area bargaining bloc.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
You would like to get married, have 2.5 kids and buy a house with a white picket fence.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
Owning a house with a white picket fence?
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Speaking on the picket line at the RVH on Monday, Dr Steven Montgomery, chairman of the BMA's Northern Ireland resident doctors committee, said everyone is "furious at the situation".
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
He dripped down the hall, across the stoop, through Mrs. Cobb’s front yard, past the picket gate, and most of the way home.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
While some earlier protests did turn violent, she wrote, recent pickets outside Portland’s ICE headquarters have featured lawn chairs and low energy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2025
Women played a vital role in the dispute, organising food collections, distributions and fundraising, organising pickets and speaking at rallies.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2025
On pickets, speeches captured the dark but defiant mood.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2024
After months of stalled negotiations, pickets, strike threats and mounting financial uncertainty, PCC Community Markets has reached a tentative labor deal with its about 1,600 unionized hourly workers, both sides said Wednesday.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
The perfect picket fence now had a gate over the top of it, and one of the pickets was broken, jagged.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
A Jerusalem cafe picketed for weeks by observant Jews said Thursday it had agreed to shut on the Sabbath, bowing to demands despite counter-protests by secular Israelis.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Less than three dozen people picketed outside of OpenAI’s offices, but the demonstration sparked a bitter feud on an effective altruist forum.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
They picketed with placards reading, “Real Mail Not Email!”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2025
Outside a Disney Character Voices office earlier this month, dozens of actors picketed against video game companies for refusing to come to an agreement on using AI in video games.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2025
Women picketed the schools and plucked out children who had wandered into them.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Schneider faces misdemeanor charges of stalking and targeted residential picketing in American Fork and similar charges in Provo, where he went after the Bricks & Minifigs corporate offices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Those early years were marked by bitter and sometimes brutal incidents involving picketing farm workers who screamed “ Huelga! “
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
The union said it was preparing to challenge the injunction, but said it agreed to abide by the law on picketing.
From BBC ● May 31, 2025
One lawmaker apparently complained that protesters have been picketing at her house and targeting her kid, one source told the Wall Street Journal's Olivia Beavers.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2025
He and his people were out there, marching, demonstrating, picketing, putting pressure on the government.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
