picnic

[ pik-nik ]

/ ˈpɪk nɪk /

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

pickwickian, pickwickian syndrome, pickwickianism, picky, picloram, picnic, picnic races, pico, pico de aneto, pico de são tomé, pico de teide

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 picnicking

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 France|Tracy McNicoll|October 25, 2012|DAILY BEAST
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 Died|Terry Greene Sterling|October 13, 2012|DAILY BEAST
She, her kids, and some friends were picnicking on the bank of the Red River near their home in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Drowning Race Gap|Constantino Diaz-Duran|August 7, 2010|DAILY BEAST
"I don't call this picnicking," Edith declared, after her first taste of chowder.
The Bachelors|William Dana Orcutt

He began demurring, but I suggested that it was not an ideal night for picnicking outside.
The Flaming Sword in Serbia and Elsewhere|Mabel Annie Boulton Stobart
Sheyenne River Park (Tour 1): picnicking, swimming, hiking; suitable in winter for skiing.
North Dakota|Various
It was the happiness of the child escaped from its lessons and picnicking gloriously in freedom and unrebukedness.
The Pastor's Wife|Elizabeth von Arnim
But so far we had never got leave to carry our picnicking quite so far.
The House That Grew|Mrs. Molesworth

British Dictionary definitions for picnicking

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 picnicking (1 of 2)

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.

Word Origin and History for picnicking (1 of 2)

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 picnicking

picnic

see no picnic.