Part 263

Picked dogfish. (Zoˆl.) See under Dogfish. -- Picked out, ornamented or relieved with lines, or the like, of a different, usually a lighter, color; as, a carriage body dark green, picked out with red.

Pick"ed*ness (?), n. 1. The state of being sharpened; pointedness.

2. Fineness; spruceness; smartness. [Obs.]

Too much pickedness is not manly.

B. Jonson.

Pick*eer" (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Pickeered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Pickeering.] [F. picorer to go marauding, orig., to go to steal cattle, ultimately fr. L. pecus, pecoris, cattle; cf. F. picorÈe, Sp. pecorea robbery committed by straggling soldiers.] To make a raid for booty; to maraud; also, to skirmish in advance of an army. See Picaroon. [Obs.] Bp. Burnet.

Pick*eer"er (?), n. One who pickeers. [Obs.]

Pick"er (?), n. [From Pick.] 1. One who, or that which, picks, in any sense, - - as, one who uses a pick; one who gathers; a thief; a pick; a pickax; as, a cotton picker. "Pickers and stealers." Shak.

2. (Mach.) A machine for picking fibrous materials to pieces so as to loosen and separate the fiber.

3. (Weaving) The piece in a loom which strikes the end of the shuttle, and impels it through the warp.

4. (Ordnance) A priming wire for cleaning the vent.

Pick"er*el (?), n. [Dim. of Pike.] [Written also pickerell.] 1. A young or small pike. [Obs.]

Bet [better] is, quoth he, a pike than a pickerel.

Chaucer.

2. (Zoˆl.) (a) Any one of several species of freshwater fishes of the genus Esox, esp. the smaller species. (b) The glasseye, or wall-eyed pike. See Wall-eye.

The federation, or chain, pickerel (Esox reticulatus) and the brook pickerel (E. Americanus) are the most common American species. They are used for food, and are noted for their voracity. About the Great Lakes the pike is called pickerel.

Pickerel weed (Bot.), a blue-flowered aquatic plant (Pontederia cordata) having large arrow-shaped leaves. So called because common in slow-moving waters where pickerel are often found.

Pick"er*ing (?), n. [Probably a corruption of Pickerel.] (Zoˆl.) The sauger of the St.Lawrence River.

Pick"er*y (?), n. [From Pick to steal; or perhaps from Pickeer.] Petty theft. [Scot.] Holinshed.

Pick"et (?), n. [F. piquet, properly dim. of pique spear, pike. See Pike, and cf. Piquet.] 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. [Probably so called from the picketing of the horses.] (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.

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.

Pick"et, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Picketed; p. pr. & vb. n. Picketing.] 1. To fortify with pointed stakes.

2. To inclose or fence with pickets or pales.