peck

Etymology 1

From Middle English pecken, pekken, variant of Middle English piken, picken, pikken (“to pick, use a pointed implement”). More at pick.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird).
   The birds pecked at their food.
2. (transitive) To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.
   to peck a hole in a tree
3. To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument, especially with repeated quick movements.
4. To seize and pick up with the beak, or as if with the beak; to bite; to eat; often with up.
   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.
5. To do something in small, intermittent pieces.
   He has been pecking away at that project for some time now.
6. To type by searching for each key individually.
7. (rare) To type in general.
8. To kiss briefly.

noun

1. An act of striking with a beak.
2. A small kiss.

Etymology 2

Probably from Anglo-Norman pek, pekke, of uncertain origin.

noun

1. One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts.
   They picked a peck of wheat.
   22,110 bushels of French beans, at 6d. per peck, or 2s. per bushel 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Gross Value of the Fruit and Vegetables Sold Annually in the London Streets”, in London Labour and the London Poor
   I took his advice, and went to Billingsgate for the first time in my life, and bought a peck of oysters for 2s. 6d. 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Experience of a Fried Fish-seller, and of the Class of Customers”, in London Labour and the London Poor
2. A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
   She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.

Etymology 3

Variant of pick (“to throw”).

verb

1. (regional) To throw.
2. To lurch forward; especially, of a horse, to stumble after hitting the ground with the toe instead of the flat of the foot.
   Anyhow, one of them fell, another one pecked badly, and Jerry disengaged himself from the group to scuttle up the short strip of meadow to win by a length. 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 97

Etymology 4

noun

1. Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
   an occurrence of peck in rice

Etymology 5

noun

1. (UK, slang, obsolete) Food.
   Gemmen, have you ordered the peck and booze for the evening? 1821, W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry

Etymology 6

noun

1. Misspelling of pec.