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Picket   /pˈɪkɪt/   Listen
noun
Picket  n.  
1.
A stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles; or one used for tethering horses.
2.
A pointed pale, used in marking fences.
3.
(Mil.) A detached body of troops serving to guard an army from surprise, and to oppose reconnoitering parties of the enemy; called also outlying picket.
4.
By extension, men appointed by a trades union, or other labor organization, to intercept outsiders, and prevent them from working for employers with whom the organization is at variance. (Cant)
5.
A military punishment, formerly resorted to, in which the offender was forced to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.
6.
A game at cards. See Piquet.
Inlying picket (Mil.), a detachment of troops held in camp or quarters, detailed to march if called upon.
Picket fence, a fence made of pickets. See def. 2, above.
Picket guard (Mil.), a guard of horse and foot, always in readiness in case of alarm.
Picket line. (Mil.)
(a)
A position held and guarded by small bodies of men placed at intervals.
(b)
A rope to which horses are secured when groomed.
Picketpin, an iron pin for picketing horses.


Piquet  n.  (Written also picket and picquet)  A game at cards played between two persons, with thirty-two cards, all the deuces, threes, fours, fives, and sixes, being set aside.


verb
Picket  v. t.  (past & past part. picketed; pres. part. picketing)  
1.
To fortify with pointed stakes.
2.
To inclose or fence with pickets or pales.
3.
To tether to, or as to, a picket; as, to picket a horse.
4.
To guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket.
5.
To torture by compelling to stand with one foot on a pointed stake. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Picket" Quotes from Famous Books



... of which overlook the Potomac, and have recalled to mind the fearful pressure of anxiety that must have weighed upon the President during those long days; as looking across the river, he could trace by the smoke the picket lines of the Virginia troops. He must have thought of the possibility that he was to be the last President of the United States, that the torch handed over to him by the faltering hands of his predecessor was to expire while he was responsible for the flame. The ...
— Abraham Lincoln • George Haven Putnam
... old one-hoss shay, and kind o' brushed up, and started off a-courtin'. Wal, the parson come to the house, and he war tickled to pieces with the looks o' things outside, 'cause the house is all well shingled and painted, and there ain't a picket loose nor ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn
... the little pine picket which divided the bookkeepers' department of a Macon warehouse from the room in general, and surveyed the well-dressed back of a gentleman who was busily figuring at a desk within. The apartment was carpetless, and the dust of a decade lay deep on the old books, shelves, and ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various
... men rolled their quids and looked eagerly up the track. It came on with screaming whistle and noisy brakes and roaring wheels. Children began to cry with fear and men to yell with excitement. Dogs were barking wildly, and two horses ran away, dragging with them part of a picket-fence. A brown shoat came bounding over the ties and broke through the wall of people, carrying many off their feet and creating panic and profanity. The train stopped, its engine hissing. A brakeman of flashy attire, with fine leather showing to the knees, ...
— Darrel of the Blessed Isles • Irving Bacheller
... weird ominous scene. Up the empty harbor, under a dark and cloudy sky, came four barges, black with negro laborers, and ahead and around and behind them came police boats throwing their searchlights upon an angry swarm of union picket dories, from which as they drew nearer I heard furious voices shouting, "Scab!" One of the barges docked where I stood and the negroes quickly slunk inside. I drew back from them as they passed, for to me too they ...
— The Harbor • Ernest Poole


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