picket

[ pik-it ]

/ ˈpɪk ɪt /

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See synonyms for: picket / picketing / pickets / picketer on Thesaurus.com

noun

a post, stake, pale, or peg that is used in a fence or barrier, to fasten down a tent, etc.

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.

a person engaged in any similar demonstration, as against a government's policies or actions, before an embassy, office building, construction project, etc.

Military. a soldier or detachment of soldiers placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance.

Navy, Air Force. an aircraft or ship performing similar sentinel duty.

verb (used with object)

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

to fasten or tether to a picket.

to place pickets in front of or around (a factory, store, mine, embassy, etc.), as during a strike or demonstration.

Military.

to guard, as with pickets.
to post as a picket.

verb (used without object)

to stand or march as a picket.

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Origin of picket

From the French word piquet, dating back to 1680–90. See pike², -et

OTHER WORDS FROM picket

pick·et·er, nouncoun·ter·pick·et, noun, verbun·pick·et·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use picket in a sentence

Weingarten noted that few unions in the AFT’s ranks have authorized safety strikes and none so far have gone from the step of authorizing a strike to hitting the picket lines.
Chicago Public Schools suspends in-person learning as possible teachers strike looms|Dawn Reiss, Kim Bellware|January 27, 2021|Washington Post
As the signs said, the informational picket wasn’t an official work-stoppage strike, since the participating patrollers were on their days off.
Why Ski Patrollers Are Picketing at Two Vail Resorts|Scott Yorko|January 20, 2021|Outside Online
Cerue Cotton never expected to find herself on a picket line.
The Challenges Posed By COVID-19 Pushed Many Workers to Strike. Will the Labor Movement See Sustained Interest?|Abigail Abrams|January 17, 2021|Time
Black community leaders picketed the office of then-Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.
Before Eric Garner, There Was Michael Stewart: The Tragic Story of the Real-Life Radio Raheem|Marlow Stern|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST

“The president should be picketed everywhere she goes,” Vinnichenko said.
Homophobia in Russia Is Taking a Kafkaesque Turn|Jay Michaelson|June 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
We never picketed funerals or held signs declaring “Thank God for AIDS.”
Fred Phelps May Be Dead, But His Fundamentalist God Lives|Matthew Paul Turner|March 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the 1970s, American Jewish groups picketed the Bolshoi Ballet to demand freedom for Soviet Jews.
The Real Problem With the American Studies Association's Boycott of Israel|Peter Beinart|December 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST
I saw him on TV when neighborhood residents picketed his Philadelphia strip club, The Golden 33.
On the Porn Film’s 40th Anniversary, a Thank-You to ‘Deep Throat’|Kristin Battista-Frazee|June 12, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Nearly half the regiment ran to secure their picketed horses, armed themselves in hot haste, and galloped to the gaol.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
We picketed the horses in the open bottom where grass was more plentiful than in the brush, and settled ourselves to sleep.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
Our horses, which we had picketed in the open overnight, we saddled and tied out of sight in the brush.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
In the daytime he would lie concealed in some thicket, close to a road, his horse always picketed some distance from him.
The Courier of the Ozarks|Byron A. Dunn
Easy victory; for the Moslems, perhaps three score, had many of their horses picketed, and were preparing a meal.
God Wills It!|William Stearns Davis

British Dictionary definitions for picket

picket

/ (ˈpɪkɪt) /

noun

a pointed stake, post, or peg that is driven into the ground to support a fence, provide a marker for surveying, etc

an individual or group that stands outside an establishment to make a protest, to dissuade or prevent employees or clients from entering, etc

Also: picquet a small detachment of troops or warships positioned towards the enemy to give early warning of attack

verb

to post or serve as pickets at (a factory, embassy, etc)let's go and picket the shop

to guard (a main body or place) by using or acting as a picket

(tr) to fasten (a horse or other animal) to a picket

(tr) to fence (an area, boundary, etc) with pickets

Derived forms of picket

picketer, noun

Word Origin for picket

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

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

picket

Origin of picket

OTHER WORDS FROM picket

Words related to picket

How to use picket in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for picket

Derived forms of picket

Word Origin for picket