Examples Word Origin
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. Show More
verb (used without object), pic·nicked, pic·nick·ing. to go on or take part in a picnic. Show More
Origin of picnic 1740–50; < German Pic-nic (now Picknick ) < French pique-nique, rhyming compound < ?
Related forms pic·nick·er , noun Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for picnicking Contemporary Examples of picnicking Or those long July hours picnicking in wait for a fleeting rainbow streak of jerseys to spill through a mountain pass.
The family said the man was picnicking ; the Border Patrol said the victim was pelting the agent with rocks.
She, her kids, and some friends were picnicking on the bank of the Red River near their home in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Historical Examples of picnicking Is there any glory in dining out, in dancing, visiting, and picnicking ?
Luckily the wind carried him past the place where they were picnicking .
Northwest of town is a railroad Reservoir (swimming and picnicking facilities).
But so far we had never got leave to carry our picnicking quite so far.
On his right at the water's edge was a group of Italians, picnicking together.
British Dictionary definitions for picnicking 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 Show More
verb -nics , -nicking or -nicked (intr) to eat a picnic Show More
Derived Forms picnicker , 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
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Word Origin and History for picnicking n. 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.
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v. "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 ).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with picnicking The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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