picnic
- 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.
- to go on or take part in a picnic.
Origin of picnic
Examples from the Web for picnicking
Contemporary Examples
Or those long July hours picnicking in wait for a fleeting rainbow streak of jerseys to spill through a mountain pass.
Lance Armstrong’s Shadow Looms Large Over 100th Edition of Tour de FranceTracy McNicoll
October 25, 2012
The family said the man was picnicking; the Border Patrol said the victim was pelting the agent with rocks.
U.S. Border Patrol Fires at Rock Throwers in Mexico, and Three Have DiedTerry Greene Sterling
October 13, 2012
She, her kids, and some friends were picnicking on the bank of the Red River near their home in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Historical Examples
Is there any glory in dining out, in dancing, visiting, and picnicking?
Lord KilgobbinCharles Lever
Luckily the wind carried him past the place where they were picnicking.
Freaks on the FellsR.M. Ballantyne
Northwest of town is a railroad Reservoir (swimming and picnicking facilities).
North DakotaVarious
But so far we had never got leave to carry our picnicking quite so far.
The House That GrewMrs. Molesworth
On his right at the water's edge was a group of Italians, picnicking together.
The Cottage of DelightWill N. Harben
picnic
- 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
- (intr) to eat a picnic
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for picnicking
picnic
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.
picnic
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).
Idioms and Phrases with picnicking
picnic
see no picnic.