Picket

/ˈpɪk.ɪt/ · noun

Meaning

A stake driven into the ground..

Definitions by Sense

1. A stake driven into the ground.
2. (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.
3. A tool in mountaineering that is driven into the snow and used as an anchor or to arrest falls.
4. (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.
5. (sometimes figurative) A sentry.
6. A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc. during a strike (usually in plural); also the protest itself.
7. (card games, uncountable) The card game piquet.
8. (intransitive) To protest, organized by a labour union, typically in front of the location of employment.

Example Sentences

a picket fence

So confident was he that he ignored the warning of his two British advisers to post pickets to watch the river, and even withdrew those they had placed there.

Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them.

Pickets normally endeavor to be non-violent.

In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.

One of the most striking was the silver pin presented to all members of the National Women’s Party who served time for picketting the White House for women’s suffrage.

to picket a horse

[T]he Moors kept a good Guard all Night, and did not unſaddle their Horſes, but picketted them before the Tent-Doors; […]

Synonyms for picket

Antonyms for picket

Related Words

Word Forms

• pickets
• picketing
• picketting
• picketed
• picketted

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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