PECK AT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Peck at

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/pɛk æt/ Listen

verb

Peck v. i.

To make strokes with the beak, or with a pointed instrument.

To pick up food with the beak; hence, to eat. "(The hen) went pecking by his side."

To peck at,

(a)

to attack with petty and repeated blows; to carp at; to nag; to tease.

(a)

to eat slowly and in small portions, with litle interest; as, to peck at one's food.

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Etymology of 'Peck at'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Peck at" Quotes from Famous Books

... him, but he bore up. When she was asleep, he said, he would hop on to the frilly things of her night-gown and peck at her mouth. ...

— The Little White Bird - or Adventures In Kensington Gardens • J. M. Barrie

... remarked, walking close beside me. "He's got two of the most spiteful chickens out there you ever saw, and whenever anything goes wrong with him he bolts right out there, no matter who is here, and makes those vicious things peck at each other. Mother and I try hard to reform ...

— The Jucklins - A Novel • Opie Read

... dawned; and now the sun was flaming, a sun which fell perpendicularly on the sleepers, powerless to make them open their eyelids. They slept rudely, all their faces beaming with the fine innocence of drunkards. The hens at early morning must have strayed down to peck at the casks, for they were drunk; they, too, sleeping on the sands. There were also five cats and five dogs, their paws in the air, drunk from licking the glasses ...

— The Fete At Coqueville - 1907 • Emile Zola

... instance—where man has so seldom been that he is unknown to the indigenous animal life, travellers relate that birds are so tame and friendly and curious, being wholly unacquainted with the bloodthirsty nature of man, that they will perch on his shoulders and peck at his ...

— No Animal Food - and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes • Rupert H. Wheldon

... for a clever fellow, Iago takes too much pains to show his cleverness. If he does not wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at, it must be for two reasons; first, that no gentleman wears his heart any where but inside of his chest; and secondly, that hearts are not the favourite food of the bird mentioned; but he lets slip ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 • Various

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