- 1[intransitive] (of birds) to move the beak forward quickly and hit or bite something peck (at something) A robin was pecking at crumbs on the ground. Hens pecked around in the yard. peck something A bird had pecked a hole in the sack. peck something out Vultures had pecked out the dead goat's eyes.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- 2[transitive] (informal) to kiss someone lightly and quickly peck somebody on something He pecked her on the cheek as he went out. peck something She pecked his cheek. Idioms
peck
verbNAmE//pɛk//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they peck he / she / it pecks
past simple pecked
-ing form pecking
the order of importance in relation to one another among the members of a group synonym hierarchy The Lakers are at the top of the pecking order of NBA teams. to be first in the pecking order Phrasal Verbspeck at
Check pronunciation: peck