peckish
hungry
TRANSLATION
peckish = hungrig --- GOOGLE INDEX peckish: approximately 1,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
According to the Berlin-based Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in Europe, there are now 16,000 doner outlets in Germany. More than 1,000 exist in Berlin to tempt PECKISH late-night revellers on the capital's streets.
(BBC News)
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PECKISH baby raccoon gets head stuck in jar and has to be rescued by fire-fighters.
(Daily Mirror)
(BBC News)
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PECKISH baby raccoon gets head stuck in jar and has to be rescued by fire-fighters.
(Daily Mirror)
Did you
know?
peckish
adjective
- hungry
(Oxford English Dictionaries)
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Peckish is a chiefly British term that simply means hungry. It stems from the verb "to peck," which describes what a bird does when it bites, hits or picks up something small with its beak, such as when it is searching for food.
The verb peck in turn is thought to be a variation of "pick," a fusion of the Old English "pician" and the Old Norse "pikka," both of which mean to prick or pierce. These are all related to the Middle Dutch and German "picken," which has the same meaning. Peck is also recorded in the 16th century as thieves’ slang for food or grub.
Peck also has a noun form that describes a dry goods measure equal to 1/4th of a bushel, which was once roughly equal to eight gallons, or approximately 35 litres. While bushel is rarely used as an official measure these days, it loosely refers to a large amount of something (We picked bushels of apples from our tree).
The act of pecking, especially by chickens, created two other common expressions:
- pecking order = an informal social system in which some people or groups know they are more or less important than others, a behaviour originally observed among hens
- henpecked = refers to a man who is controlled by and is a little afraid of his wife, which refers to the often domineering behaviour of hens
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SYNONYMS
hungry, famished, starved, empty, ravenous
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I’m feeling a bit peckish. Let’s go to lunch early."
adjective
- hungry
(Oxford English Dictionaries)
---
Peckish is a chiefly British term that simply means hungry. It stems from the verb "to peck," which describes what a bird does when it bites, hits or picks up something small with its beak, such as when it is searching for food.
The verb peck in turn is thought to be a variation of "pick," a fusion of the Old English "pician" and the Old Norse "pikka," both of which mean to prick or pierce. These are all related to the Middle Dutch and German "picken," which has the same meaning. Peck is also recorded in the 16th century as thieves’ slang for food or grub.
Peck also has a noun form that describes a dry goods measure equal to 1/4th of a bushel, which was once roughly equal to eight gallons, or approximately 35 litres. While bushel is rarely used as an official measure these days, it loosely refers to a large amount of something (We picked bushels of apples from our tree).
The act of pecking, especially by chickens, created two other common expressions:
- pecking order = an informal social system in which some people or groups know they are more or less important than others, a behaviour originally observed among hens
- henpecked = refers to a man who is controlled by and is a little afraid of his wife, which refers to the often domineering behaviour of hens
---
SYNONYMS
hungry, famished, starved, empty, ravenous
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I’m feeling a bit peckish. Let’s go to lunch early."
