peck

To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).

The birds pecked at their food.

The rooster had been known to fly on her shoulder and peck her neck, so that now she carried a stick or took one of the children with her when she went to feed the fowls.

To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.

to peck a hole in a tree

To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument, especially with repeated quick movements.

To seize and pick up with the beak, or as if with the beak; to bite; to eat; often with up.

This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas.

1713 September 14, letter to Joseph Addison, The Guardian, issue 160. I HAVE laid a wager, with a friend of mine, about the pigeons that used to peck up the corn which belonged to the ants.

To do something in small, intermittent pieces.

He has been pecking away at that project for some time now.

An act of striking with a beak.

A small kiss.

One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; equal to approximately 9092 cubic centimeters in the imperial system or 8810 cubic centimeters in the U.S. system.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

22,110 bushels of French beans, at 6d. per peck, or 2s. per bushel

Similar units in other systems of measure, such as the Roman modius or Chinese dou.

A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.

She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.

a peck of uncertainties and doubts