piqued

[peekt]

adjective

1. (of interest, curiosity, etc.) excited or aroused.

   By the end of the talk the audience had tons of questions, and left with a piqued interest in the world of lion research.

2. irritated and resentful, especially because of an injury to one’s pride.

   The Act triggered President Truman's piqued reaction: he found the bill "un-American" and vetoed it, but to no avail.

3. (of pride, vanity, etc.) wounded.

   Unimaginable horrors often result from nothing more than a move to second place, a public embarrassment, or a piqued ego.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of pique.

Other Word Forms

• unpiqued adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of piqued¹

pique ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

In a state of exhaustion, my curiosity piqued.

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For over a decade, Superchief has established itself as a place where punk rockers, graffiti writers, street photographers, homegrown fine artists and anyone with a piqued interest in counterculture gather to celebrate art.

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Sir Ben says that is what first piqued his interest, with the script being a final clincher.

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"At the end of it all, it started to get a little scary, and then it piqued when Sarah Palin appeared on the show."

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Wells, whose widely serialized attack-of-the-Martians story “War of the Worlds” piqued the Western imagination.

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Related Words

• annoyed 
• bitter 
• enraged www.thesaurus.com
• exasperated 
• furious 
• heated 
• impassioned 
• indignant 
• irate 
• irritable 
• irritated 
• mad 
• offended 
• outraged www.thesaurus.com
• resentful 
• sullen 
• uptight