Other forms: pecking, pecks, pecked
To peck is to strike at something with a beak — quick, sharp, again and again. Pigeons pecking at chips on the pavement, a hen going over the same square of ground twenty times.
It is a noun as well: 'the bird gave the crumb a peck'. From birds it moved to people. A peck on the cheek is a quick light kiss, the kind you give an aunt on a station platform. To peck at your food is to eat tiny amounts without wanting any of it, and to peck at a keyboard is to type slowly with one finger. The phrase you will meet most is pecking order: hens really do sort themselves into a rank where each bird may peck the ones below it, and offices borrowed the idea whole. Peckish, meaning slightly hungry, comes from the same nest.
1verbpeckOf a bird: to strike or pick at something with the beak.
“The hens pecked at the grain scattered across the yard.”
2verbeatTo eat only small amounts, without appetite.
“She pecked at her dinner and pushed the plate away.”
3verbkissTo kiss someone quickly and lightly.
“He pecked her on the cheek and got on the train.”
4nounquickA quick strike made with a beak.
“The gull took a peck at the sandwich and missed.”
5nounshortA short, light kiss.
“A peck on the cheek was all he got for three hours of driving.”
Peck is a Middle English variant of pick — pecken sitting beside picken, 'to pick, to use something pointed'. The two words never quite separated. A bird pecks at grain and you pick at a loose thread, and it is the same small pointed action either way.
Middle English
pecken
English, today
peck
Built from
From Middle English pecken, pekken, variant of Middle English piken, picken, pikken (“to pick, use a pointed implement”). More at pick.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA