peck

«peck» in Mova's school dictionary: To hit or pick up something with the beak — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (peck, pecks, pecked, pecking); noun (a peck, pecks)

meaning for a pupil

1) (of a bird) To hit or pick up something with the beak. tree →

2) Noun: a quick hit with a beak. tree →

3) Noun: a quick light kiss: a peck on the cheek. tree →

4) (old measure) A unit of dry volume, a quarter of a bushel, used for grain and fruit. tree →

5) «Peck at your food»: to eat only a little, without hunger. tree →

6) To peck at things can also mean to try many new things briefly, without settling on any one of them. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and stories birds peck at seeds and worms; woodpeckers peck holes in trees. In families a peck is a little kiss. In old rhymes («Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers») and old measures, a peck is about 9 litres. «Pecking order» means who is the boss in a group.

examples

• The hen pecked at the corn. tree →
• A woodpecker pecks holes in tree bark. tree →
• Mum gave me a peck on the cheek. tree →
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. tree →
• The baby bird pecked its way out of the egg. tree →
• He only pecked at his dinner because he wasn't hungry. tree →
• The oldest chicken is top of the pecking order. tree →
• Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. tree →

note

Past: pecked. In measure problems: 4 pecks = 1 bushel (US and old UK measures). A «peck» kiss is light and quick.

In the corpora

• Owl butterflies have large eye spots on the underside of their wings that may startle birds or draw their pecks away from the body.
• Chickens scratch and peck for seeds, worms and insects; they are omnivores and will even eat mice and small frogs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «peck» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.