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.
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Government, Military, Politics, War 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.
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.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 59:
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.1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 26, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
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A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc. during a strike (usually in plural); also the protest itself.
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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
Etymology From French piquet, from piquer (“to pierce”).
1
To protest, organized by a labour union, typically in front of the location of employment.
2
To enclose or fortify with pickets or pointed stakes.
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.2003, Christopher Fowler, “Hop”, in Demonized: Short Stories, London: Serpent’s Tail, published 2004, →ISBN, page 168:
3
To tether to, or as if to, a picket.
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; […]1729, [John] Braithwaite, The History of the Revolutions in the Empire of Morocco, upon the Death of the Late Emperor Muley Ishmael; […], London: […] J. Darby and T. Browne […], →OCLC, page 127:
1 more example
[F]rom the outskirts of the fair, where are picketted the horses and the herds for sale, comes the tinkle of bells, a mule’s shrill scream, mingled with the music of a guitar or the rattle of castanets.1876, Arthur Griffiths, “San Roque Fair”, in Lola: A Tale of the Rock. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 43:
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To guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket.
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Obsolete To torture by forcing to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.