View source for pecker

==English==

===Etymology===
From {{inh|en|enm|pekker}}, equivalent to {{af|en|peck|t1=to [[pick]] at [[something]] in the [[manner]] of a [[bird]]|-er|t2=forming agent nouns}}.

===Pronunciation===
* {{IPA|en|/ˈpɛkə(ɹ)/}}
* {{audio|en|En-au-pecker.ogg|a=AU}}
* {{rhymes|en|ɛkə(ɹ)|s=2}}

===Noun===
{{en-noun}}

# [[someone|Someone]] who or [[something]] that [[peck]]s, [[striking]] or [[piercing]] in the [[manner]] of a [[bird]]'s [[beak]] or [[bill]], [[particularly]]:
#* {{quote-journal|en|date=2003 October 18|work=The Economist|url=http://www.economist.com/node/2138027|title=Stress Test|text=Two studies of British civil servants, for example, suggest that those at the top of the heap are less stressed than those near the bottom. Work on other species, too, indicates that when it comes to [[pecking order]]s, the peckees are more stressed than the '''peckers'''.}}
## {{lb|en|uncommon|_|or|_|regional}} Any [[tool]] [[use]]d in a [[peck]]ing [[fashion]], [[particularly]] kinds of [[hoe]]s or [[pickaxe]]s.
##* {{quote-book|en|year=1588|author=Thomas Hariot|title=A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia|section=sig. C2|text=The women with short '''peckers''' or parers,... of a [[foot]]e long and about [[five|fiue]] inches in breadth: [[do]]e [[only|onely]] [[break]]e the [[upper|vpper]] part of the ground to [[raise|rayse]] [[up|vp]] the [[weeds|weedes]], [[grass]]e, & old [[stubs|stubbes]] of [[corn]]e [[stalks|stalkes]] with their [[roots|rootes]]... For their [[corn]]e,... with a '''pecker''' they make a hole, wherein they put [[four]]e [[grains|graines]].}}
##* {{quote-book|en|year=1782|author=J. Scott|title=Poetical Works|page=119
|passage=Let sturdy youths their pointed '''peckers''' ply,<br>Till the [[raised|rais'd]] roots loose on the surface lie.}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1848|title=Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society|section=9 ii. 551
|passage=A small narrow hoe or '''pecker'''... A small '''hand-pecker'''.}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1948|author=M. Carbery; E. Grey|title=Hertfordshire Heritage|page=120
|passage='''''Pecker''''', small pickaxe for cutting [[furze]].}}
## {{lb|en|uncommon}} Any [[machine]] or [[machine]] [[part]] [[move|moving]] in a [[peck]]ing [[fashion]], [[particularly]]:
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1922|title=Whittaker's Mechanical Engineer's Pocket Book|page=368
|passage=The upper end of the finger ''o'' carries a "'''pecker'''" ''p'', which consists of a hardened steel piece with a V edge. This '''pecker''' is engaged by any one of several steps or notches in a stepped block {{g|m}} carried by the rocking lever ''l''.}}
### {{lb|en|weaving|obsolete}} A [[picker]], a [[shuttle-driver]]: the [[device]] which [[move]]s [[backwards]] and [[forwards]] in the [[shuttle-box]] to [[drive]] the [[shuttle]] through the [[warp]].
###* {{quote-text|en|year=1807|author=Thomas Johnson|title=British Patent № 3023 (1856)|section=5|text=The shuttle... receives its motion from the '''peckers''' connected with cords pulled by the '''pecking''' lever.}}
###* {{quote-text|en|year=1878|author=Alfred Barlow|title=The History and Principles of Weaving by Hand and by Power|section=x. 136
|passage=When the shaft [of the draw-boy] rocks from side to side of the machine, it will carry the '''pecker'''... with it.}}
### {{lb|en|telegraphy|historical}} A [[kind of]] [[V]]-shaped [[telegraphic]] [[relay]].
###* {{quote-text|en|date=1858 June 13|author=H.C.F. Jenkin|title=letter in ''Papers'' (1887), volume I|page=lxxxvi|text=Click, click, click, the '''pecker''' is at work.}}
###* {{quote-text|en|year=1940|title=Chambers's Technical Dictionary|section=621/1
|passage='''''Pecker''''', the small cylindrical pin which rises and falls in scanning the holes punched in a slip corresponding to the coding of the message.}}
### {{lb|en|US|_|regional|historical}} {{clipping of|en|pecker mill|nodot=11}}, a [[rice mill]].
###* {{quote-text|en|year=1802|author=J. Drayton|title=A view of South Carolina, as respects her natural and civil concerns|page=121
|passage=Rice mills, called '''pecker''', cog, and water '''mills'''... The first... so called, from the pestle's striking... in the manner of a wood pecker.}}
###* {{quote-text|en|year=1949|author=S. C. Murray|title=This Our Land: the Story of the Agricultural Society of South Carolina|page=41
|passage=After being thrashed by flail or whipped off, the rice was milled and dressed wholly by hand or by a crude machine called a ‘'''pecker'''’.}}
## {{lb|en|zoology}} A [[bird]], [[particularly]] a [[member]] of the [[group]] [[including]] the [[woodpecker]]s, [[flowerpecker]]s, [[oxpecker]]s, and [[berrypecker]]s.
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1697|translator=w:John Dryden|author=w:Publius Virgilius Maro|title=w:Georgics|section=iv
|passage=The [[titmouse|Titmouse]], and the '''Peckers''' hungry [[brood|Brood]].}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1884|month=January|author=George Allen|title=Longman's Magazine|page=294|text=By far the greater number of modern birds belong to the... orders of the perchers, the '''peckers''', and the birds of prey.}}
### {{lb|en|zoology|usually|_|colloquial|_|or|_|US|_|regional}} {{clipping of|en|woodpecker|nodot=11}} ({{taxfmt|Picidae|family}}).
###* {{quote-text|en|year=1883|translator=J.S. Stallybrass|author=w:Jacob Grimm|title=Teutonic Mythology|volume=III|page=973
|passage=The '''pecker''' was esteemed a sacred and divine bird.}}
###* {{quote-journal|en|date=January 20 1980|journal=Washington Post|section=m1
|passage=I've been feeding several downy '''’peckers''' from my short-perched tubes for years.}}
## {{lb|en|UK|_|regional|obsolete}} An [[eater]], a [[diner]].
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1862|author=C.C. Robinson|title=The Dialect of Leeds & Its Neighbourhood|page=383
|passage=He's a '''rare pecker'''.}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1873|title=Slang Dictionary
|passage=''Peck''... A hearty eater is generally called ‘a '''rare pecker'''’.}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1894|author=Mrs. H. Ward|title=Marcella|section=II. iv. v. 476
|passage=But I've been better [[ever|iver]] since, [[an']] [[beginnin']] to eat my [[vittles]], too, though I'm never no great '''pecker'''.}}
## {{lb|en|UK|_|regional}} A [[bird]]'s [[beak]] or [[bill]].
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1891|author=G. Sweetman|title=A Glossary of Words used by the rural population in the parish and neighbourhood of Wincanton, Somerset
|passage='''''Pecker''''', a bird's bill}}
##* {{quote-book|en|year=1967|author=H. Orton & M. F. Wakelin|title=A Survey of English dialects B|volume=4|text=[[question|Q]]. What does a bird peck its food up with?... [Wiltshire] Beak, '''pecker'''.}}
## {{lb|en|chiefly|US|regional|slang}} A [[penis]]; [[cock#Noun|cock]], [[dick#Noun|dick]].
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1902|author=J. S. Farmer; W. E. Henley|title=Slang and Its Analogues|location=London|section=V. 289/2
|passage=The penis... '''pecker'''.}}
##* {{quote-book|en|author=w:Henry Miller|chapter=The Tailor Shop|title=[[w:Black Spring (novel)|Black Spring]]|location=Paris|publisher=[[w:Obelisk Press|The Obelisk Press]]{{nb...|338, rue Saint-Honoré}}|year=1936|oclc=459562537|location2=New York, N.Y.|publisher2=w:Grove Press|year2=1963|pages2=125–126|pageurl2=https://archive.org/stream/blackspring00mill#page/126/mode/1up|isbn2=978-0-8021-3182-9|passage=Ought to stand on {{w|Times Square}} with my '''pecker''' in my hand and piss in the gutter.}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1964|title=American Folk Music Occasional|section=i. 12
|passage=There is a house down in [[New Orleans]],<br>They call it [[w:House of the Rising Sun|The Rising Sun]],<br>When you want to get your '''pecker''' spoilt,<br>That's where you get it done.}}
##* {{quote-text|en|year=1990 Fall|title=Paris Review|volume=32|number=116|page=171|text=He has the '''biggest pecker in the pool''', politically speaking.}}
# {{lb|en|UK|_|colloquial|by extension|_|of|_|the sense|_|&lsquo;[[beak]]&rsquo;}} A [[nose]].
# {{lb|en|UK|_|colloquial|by extension|from the expression &lsquo;[[keep one's pecker up]]&rsquo;}} [[spirits|Spirits]], [[nerve]], [[courage]].
#* {{quote-text|en|date=1845 September 15|title=Times|location=London|section=8/3|text=Mr. King... misstated the fact in saying that he had put a piece of lighted paper to the master's nose while asleep in that house; it was his hot pipe that he applied to the sleeper's nostrils, at the same time crying: Come, old chap, keep your '''pecker''' up.}}
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1873|title=Slang Dictionary
|passage='''''Pecker''''', ‘'''keep your Pecker up'''’,... literally, keep your beak and head well up, ‘[[never say die]]’.}}
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1875|author=w:W.S. Gilbert|title=Trial by Jury|section=4
|passage=Be firm, my moral '''pecker'''.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|year=1900|author=w:Joseph Conrad|title=Lord Jim|chapter=5
|passage=... he had every facility given him to remain under lock and key, with a chair, a table, a mattress in a corner, and a litter of fallen plaster on the floor, in an irrational state of funk, and keeping up his '''pecker''' with such tonics as Mariani dispensed.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|year=2003|author={{w|J.K. Rowling}}|title={{w|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix}}|page=xii<!--really? not an Arabic-numbered page?-->|text=Fred and I managed to keep our '''peckers''' up somehow.}}
# {{lb|en|chiefly|_|in the plural|pejorative|_|slang}} ''Short for'' '''[[peckerwood]]''' ("[[whitey]]; [[white trash]]")
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1966|author=R.G. Toepfer|title=Witness|section=xvi. 127
|passage=These '''peckers''' know that as well as me.}}
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1971|author=D. Wells; S. Dance|title=Night People|section=i. 7
|passage=Those cats wouldn't let us get five feet from the [[YMCA|Y.M.C.A.]] Like real '''peckers''', they'd say, ‘If I had you [[w:American South|down South]].’}}
# {{lb|en|chiefly|_|in the plural|pejorative|_|slang}} ''Short for'' '''[[peckerhead]]''' ("[[dickhead]]; an [[aggressive]] or [[objectionable]] [[idiot]]").
#* {{quote-text|en|year=2013|author=Sean Moore|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FJEg5NI4vdQC&pg=PT41|title="Sat Phone Black Op" in ''Outside the Wire'', 41
|passage=Goddammit! I give you '''peckers''' an inch and you automatically take a mile {{...}}}}
# {{lb|en|US}} {{clipping of|en|peckerhead|nodot=11}} ("an [[electric motor]]'s [[junction]] or [[terminal]] [[connection]] [[box]], where [[power]] [[cord]]s are [[connect]]ed to the [[winding]] [[leads]]").

====Synonyms====
* {{qualifier|nose}} ''See'' [[Thesaurus:nose]]
* {{qualifier|penis}} ''See'' [[Thesaurus:penis]]
* {{qualifier|courage}} ''See'' [[Thesaurus:courage]]
* {{qualifier|connection box}} [[pothead]] {{qualifier|Canada}}; [[T-box]], [[T-block]] {{qualifier|UK}}

====Derived terms====
{{der4|en|hunt-and-pecker|mountain pecker|pecker snot|wall-pecker
|{{l|en|berrypecker}}
|{{l|en|flowerpecker}}
|{{l|en|keep one's pecker up}}
|{{l|en|pecker checker}}
|{{l|en|peckerhead}}, {{l|en|pecker-head}}, {{l|en|pecker head}}
|{{l|en|pecker mill}}
|{{l|en|peckerwood}}
|{{l|en|pecky}}
|{{l|en|rare pecker}}
|{{l|en|woodpecker}}
}}

====Related terms====
* {{l|en|peckish}}

====Translations====
{{trans-top|someone who or something that pecks}}
* Dutch: {{t+|nl|pikker}}
* German: {{t|de|Picker}}, {{t|de|Picker|m}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-see|slang for woodpecker|woodpecker}}

{{trans-see|slang for penis|dick}}

{{trans-see|slang for courage|courage}}

===References===
* ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd&nbsp;ed. "pecker, ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2005.

===Anagrams===
* {{anagrams|en|a=ceekpr|repeck}}

{{C|en|Animal body parts|Genitalia|Tools|Woodpeckers}}