picket

== English == === Etymology === From French piquet, from piquer (“to pierce”). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɪkɪt/ Hyphenation: pick‧et Rhymes: -ɪkɪt === Noun === picket (countable and uncountable, plural pickets) A stake driven into the ground. (historical) A type of punishment by which an offender had to rest his or her entire body weight on the top of a small stake. A tool in mountaineering that is driven into the snow and used as an anchor or to arrest falls. (military) One of the soldiers or troops placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance; or any unit (for example, an aircraft or ship) performing a similar function. (sometimes figurative) A sentry. A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc. during a strike (usually in plural); also the protest itself. (card games, uncountable) The card game piquet. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Verb === picket (third-person singular simple present pickets, present participle picketing or (rare) picketting, simple past and past participle picketed or (rare) picketted) (intransitive) To protest, organized by a labour union, typically in front of the location of employment. (transitive) To enclose or fortify with pickets or pointed stakes. (transitive) To tether to, or as if to, a picket. to picket a horse (transitive) To guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket. (obsolete, transitive) To torture by forcing to stand with one foot on a pointed stake. ==== Derived terms ==== picketing (noun) unpicketed == German == === Pronunciation === === Verb === picket second-person plural subjunctive I of picken