Hypertext Webster Gateway: "picket"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Picket \Pick"et\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Picketed}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Picketing}.]
1. To fortify with pointed stakes.
2. To inclose or fence with pickets or pales.
3. To tether to, or as to, a picket; as, to picket a horse.
4. To guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket.
5. To torture by compelling to stand with one foot on a
pointed stake. [Obs.]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Picket \Pick"et\, n. [F. piquet, properly dim. of pique spear,
pike. See {Pike}, and cf. {Piquet}.]
1. A stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in
fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles;
or one used for tethering horses.
2. A pointed pale, used in marking fences.
3. [Probably so called from the picketing of the horses.]
(Mil.) A detached body of troops serving to guard an army
from surprise, and to oppose reconnoitering parties of the
enemy; -- called also {outlying picket}.
4. By extension, men appointed by a trades union, or other
labor organization, to intercept outsiders, and prevent
them from working for employers with whom the organization
is at variance. [Cant]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Piquet \Pi*quet"\, n. [F., prob. fr. pique. See {Pique}, {Pike},
and {Picket}.]
A game at cards played between two persons, with thirty-two
cards, all the deuces, threes, fours, fives, and sixes, being
set aside. [Written also {picket} and {picquet}.]
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
picket
n 1: a person employed to watch for something to happen [syn: {lookout},
{lookout man}, {sentinel}, {sentry}, {watch}, {spotter},
{scout}]
2: a detachment of troops guarding an army from surprise attack
3: a protester posted by a labor organization outside a place
of work
4: a vehicle performing sentinel duty
5: a wooden strip forming part of a fence [syn: {pale}]
v 1: serve as pickets or post pickets; "picket a business to
protest the lay-offs"
2: fasten with a picket; "picket the goat
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