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picnic

UK/ˈpɪknɪk/US/ˈpɪknɪk/
nounA12 meaningsVery common — you will meet it every day · #2,228 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: picnics

A picnic is a meal packed and eaten outdoors. Go on a picnic, a picnic in the park, picnic basket.

The words that go with it are fixed: picnic basket, picnic blanket, picnic table, picnic area. As a verb it means to eat one: they picnicked by the river, with the k added before the ending. The phrase no picnic means something is difficult and unpleasant — it was no picnic, which is one of the more common uses of the word in adult speech, and always negative.

Thomas Cole · Public domain

Definitions of picnic

  1. 1nounpicnicA meal packed and eaten outdoors.A1

    “The picnic lasted about twenty minutes before it rained.”

    • Said"Let's have a picnic by the river at the weekend, if it stays dry."
    • WrittenTheir picnics were famous: a blanket, a radio, and far too much cake.
    • UsedPack the picnic the night before and keep the drinks at the bottom of the bag.
    • ContrastA picnic, not a restaurant. Nobody brings anything to you, and that is the point. restaurant →
    • Not thisA sandwich alone on a park bench is lunch, not a picnic. A picnic is planned, and shared.

    Patternhave / go on a picnic · a picnic + noun (basket, blanket, table) · picnic in / by + place

  2. 2verbeatTo eat a meal outdoors.B1

    “They picnicked on the grass behind the church.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

picnic is an outdoor meal.

Remember it

PICnic → PICK a spot on the grass

Pick a spot on the grass, open the bag and eat outside while the birds watch you.

hooks ontopick

Phrases it lives in

  • no picnic — much harder and less pleasant than it might sound

Where it comes from

  1. French

    pique-nique

  2. English, today

    picnic

Borrowed from French pique-nique.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen, Travel & Transport

Practise this word

picnic in the wild

  • Historically, in Europe, the idea of a meal that was jointly contributed to and enjoyed out-of-doors was essential to picnic from the early 19th century.

    Picnic

  • Outdoor games or other forms of entertainment are common at large picnics.

    Picnic

  • In a park one day, he saw a large gathering of bunnies and had the thought that it looked like a bunny picnic.

    The Tale of the Bunny Picnic

  • Picnic baskets are standard equipment at many picnics.

    Picnic basket

  • Many modern picnic baskets also have a special storage section to hold a bottle of wine, the traditional beverage brought along to intimate picnics.

    Picnic basket

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.