picket
pronunciation
How to pronounce picket in British English:
UK [ˈpɪkɪt]
How to pronounce picket in American English:
US [ˈpɪkɪt]
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- Noun:
- a person employed to watch for something to happen
- a detachment of troops guarding an army from surprise attack
- a protester posted by a labor organization outside a place of work
- a vehicle performing sentinel duty
- a wooden strip forming part of a fence
-
- Verb:
- serve as pickets or post pickets
- fasten with a picket
Word Origin
- picket (n.)
- 1680s, "pointed stake (for defense against cavalry, etc.)," from French piquet "pointed stake," from piquer "to pierce" (see pike (n.2)). Sense of "troops posted to watch for enemy" first recorded 1761; that of "striking workers stationed to prevent others from entering a factory" is from 1867. Picket line is 1856 in the military sense, 1945 of labor strikes.
- picket (v.)
- 1745, "to enclose with pickets," from picket (n.). The sense in labor strikes, protests, etc., is attested from 1867. Related: Picketed; picketing.
Example
- 1. Enclose your cottage garden with a picket fence or a natural stone wall .
- 2. In one episode , revellers in evening dress emerge from a party to placate a picket line with plates of free food .
- 3. We 've always had this idea of the american dream : a nice house , picket fence .
- 4. The ' picket fence ' therefore had a decided upward bulge in the middle .
- 5. Levittown was the original suburbia : a place of identical detached single-family houses with white picket fences .