picnic

[ pik-nik ]

/ ˈpɪk nɪk /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR picnic ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an excursion or outing in which the participants carry food with them and share a meal in the open air.

the food eaten on such an excursion.

Also called picnic ham, picnic shoulder. a section of pork shoulder, usually boned, smoked, and weighing 4–6 pounds.Compare daisy(def 2).

Informal. an enjoyable experience or time, easy task, etc.: Being laid up in a hospital is no picnic.

verb (used without object), pic·nicked, pic·nick·ing.

to go on or take part in a picnic.

Nearby words

Origin of picnic

1740–50; < German Pic-nic (now Picknick) < French pique-nique, rhyming compound < ?

Related formspic·nick·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for picnic

The team behind Indochine and Acme is also opening Tijuana Picnic in the LES sometime this month.
Who to See and Where to be Seen: The Hot Tips for New York Fashion Week|Barbara Ragghianti|September 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sometimes, when the sun is warm and the wind is relatively calm, we set a blanket down for a picnic.
How Losing My Daughter Changed My Faith|Kyle Cupp|June 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“The idea is to get out in the open air, have a picnic,” Wrigley said.
100 Years of Wrigley Field: Are the Chicago Cubs Horrible Because of the Ballpark?|Luke Epplin|March 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Here, in the back of the café, there was a picnic style table.
The Fourth War: My Lunch with a Jihadi|Elliot Ackerman|January 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Perhaps throwing up your thumbs during a picnic lunch on Serengeti.
Miley Cyrus, Walter White, Oprah: Your Pop Culture Halloween Costume Guide|Kevin Fallon|October 21, 2013|DAILY BEAST
We did not bring a single letter, but set off exactly as if we were on a picnic.
Our Hundred Days in Europe|Oliver Wendell Holmes
The popular method of imbibing the charm of Dunloe is a combination of picnic, al fresco luncheons, and donkey-riding.
Romantic Ireland; volume 2/2|M.F and B. McM. Mansfield
A picnic unduly prolonged degenerates rapidly through all the stages of discomfort, and ends in actual hardship.
The Island Mystery|George A. Birmingham
Sidney Harrow dropped his pole, and with a half-shriek, ran in the opposite direction, towards the picnic ground.
Nelly's First Schooldays|Josephine Franklin
I thought you were going to picnic with us, said Grace flippantly.
The Automobile Girls at Palm Beach|Laura Dent Crane

British Dictionary definitions for picnic

picnic

/ (ˈpɪknɪk) /

noun

a trip or excursion to the country, seaside, etc, on which people bring food to be eaten in the open air

any informal meal eaten outside
(as modifier)a picnic lunch

informal, mainly Australian a troublesome situation or experience

no picnic informal a hard or disagreeable task

verb -nics, -nicking or -nicked

(intr) to eat a picnic

Derived Formspicnicker, noun

Word Origin for picnic

C18: from French piquenique, of unknown origin

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

Word Origin and History for picnic

picnic

1748 (in Chesterfield's "Letters"), but rare before c.1800 as an English institution; originally a fashionable pot-luck social affair, not necessarily out of doors; from French piquenique (1690s), perhaps a reduplication of piquer "to pick, peck," from Old French (see pike (n.2)), or the second element may be nique "worthless thing," from a Germanic source. Figurative sense of "something easy" is from 1886. Picnic table recorded from 1926, originally a folding table.

picnic

"go on a picnic," 1842, from picnic (n.). Related: Picnicked; picnicking. The -k- is inserted to preserve the "k" sound of -c- before a suffix beginning in -i-, -y-, or -e- (cf. traffic/trafficking, panic/panicky, shellac/shellacked).

Idioms and Phrases with picnic

picnic

see no picnic.

picnic

noun

verb (used without object), pic·nicked, pic·nick·ing.

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Origin of picnic

Examples from the Web for picnic

picnic

noun

verb -nics, -nicking or -nicked

Word Origin for picnic

picnic

picnic

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