▪ I. pique, n.1
(piːk)
Forms: 6 pyke, peake, 6–7 picke, pike, 7 pieque, 7–8 picque, 7–8 (9 dial.) pick, peek, 7–9 peak, 8 pyck, 7– pique.
[a. F. pique, n. of action f. piquer to prick, pierce, sting: see pique v.1]
A. Illustration of Forms.
| 1532 Pyke [see B. 1]. 1543 St. Papers Hen. VIII, IX. 339 Wherby occasion of sum picke might be taken awaye. 1592 Peake [see B. 2]. 1596 in A. Collins Lett. & Mem. State (1746) II. 21 They are in Picke against these. 1597 Carew MSS. (1869) 272 [These two Scottish septs are] at pike [one with the other]. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. ii. 131 It is treason to moue any pick, grudge, or querrell. 1663 Flagellum or O. Cromwell (1672) 29 The like picques and quarrelling pretences of the Parliament. 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 1082 If any Member there dislike His Face, or to his Beard have Pike. 1664 Ibid. ii. i. 545 'Tis no Fantastick pique I have to love, nor coy dislike. 1667 Temple Let. to Sir J. Temple Wks. 1731 II. 43 The Duke of Albemarle had long had a Peek to their Country. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 104 Another Pick in which they agreed not. 1675 Cotton Scoffer Scofft Wks. (1725) 146 You must not take a Picque, If he..speak plain and gleek. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 318 Out of a puritanical peak. 1706 Phillips s.v., There is a Peek between them. a 1713 T. Ellwood Autobiog. Suppl. (1714) 431 Upon a Pick he took against the People called Quakers. 1757 E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) I. 61 That we should behave well to our friends out of love, and to our enemies out of picque. 1894 Crockett Raiders (ed. 3) 83, I did not learn what was the pick that the Black Smugglers had taken at the Maxwells. |
B. Signification.
1. A personal quarrel or fit of ill-feeling between two or more persons; ill-feeling, animosity, enmity.
| 1532 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) I. 349 Which Edmond Knightley hathe..trauayled..to sett pyke betwene the sayd ladye and the executors. 1540 St. Papers Hen. VIII, VIII. 464 There were some that wolde be right gladde to here Your Majestie and He were in picke togythers. 1661 Feltham Resolves ii. xliii. (ed. 8), Between entirest friends,..sometimes little peeks of coldness may appear. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 92 Because of a Pique that had been between the Abbots and Bishop Laud. a 1774 Goldsm. Elegy Mad Dog v, This dog and man at first were friends; But when a pique began, The dog..Went mad, and bit the man. |
2. A feeling of anger, resentment, or ill-will, resulting from some slight or injury, esp. such as wounds one's pride or vanity; offence taken.
| 1592 Nashe Four Lett. Conf. Wks. (Grosart) II. 215 You take the graue peake vppon you too much. 1653 Holcroft Procopius, Goth. Wars i. 15 This Optaris had a pique against Theodatus. 1663 Dryden Wild Gallant ii. i, Pray, my Lord, take no picque at it. 1663–67 Pique to [see A.]. 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke H iv b, He..bore a great pique at Alexander, for having been preferr'd before him to the See of Alexandria. 1766 [C. Anstey] Bath Guide xi. 181 Poor Stephen went suddenly forth in a Pique, And push'd off his Boat for the Stygian Creek. 1832 J. W. Croker Diary 12 May, He acquiesced..with an air of pique and disappointment. 1877 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. ix. 414 note, A Bishop who had turned monk in a momentary fit of pique. |
† 3. pique of honour, a point in which honour is pricked or affected. Obs.
| 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 522 There can be no Interfering upon a Pique of Honour. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 401 Add long prescription of established laws, And picque of honour to maintain a cause. |
▪ II. pique, n.2
(piːk)
Also 7 picq(ue, pickque.
[a. F. pic, in same sense, of uncertain origin. (Taken by Hatz.-Darm. as a sense of pic, pick, pike, (mountain) peak; Littré takes it as a distinct word.)]
In Piquet, The winning of thirty points on cards and play, before one's opponent begins to count, entitling the player to begin his score at sixty. Cf. repique.
| 1668 Temple Let. to Ld. Arlington Wks. 1731 II. 93 In their Audiences..the Cards commonly run high, and all is Picque and Repicque between them. 1674 Cotton Compl. Gamester vi. 81 The youngers Blank shall bar the former and hinder his Picq and Repicq [printed Picy and Repicy]. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 73/2 A Picy in the game of Picket. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Piquet, If he can make up thirty, part in hand, and part play, ere the other has told any thing, he reckons for them sixty.—And this is called a pique. Whence the name of the game. 1861 Macm. Mag. Dec. 137. |
▪ III. † pique, n.3 Obs.
[a. F. or quasi-F., ad. L. pica.]
= pica2, depraved appetite.
| 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 809 Though it have the Pique, and long, 'Tis still for something in the wrong; As Women long. |
▪ IV. pique, n.4
(ˈpiːkeɪ, piːk)
Also 7 pico.
[a. Sp. Amer. pique, ad. Quichua piqui (Gonzalez Holguin 1608), piki (Tschudi) flea, chigoe.]
1. = chigoe.
| 1748 Earthquake of Peru iii. 216 A..little Insect, call'd Pico which gets insensibly into the Feet. 1758 Adams tr. Ulloa's Voy. in Pinkerton (1808) XIV. 349 The insect..called nigua and in Peru pique, is shaped like a flea. 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. iv. (1818) I. 103, I am speaking of the celebrated Chigoe or Jiggers, called also..Pique. |
2. ‘A name for Argas nigra, a blind tick which sometimes causes sores on men or animals’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1895).
▪ V. pique, n.5
Erron. form of peak n.2
| 1826 P. Pounden France & Italy 5 A close-bound cap which dwindles nearly to a pique. 1845 Browning How they brought the Good News ii, I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right. |
▪ VI. pique
obs. form of pike3 and n.5
▪ VII. pique, v.1
(piːk)
Also 7–8 picque, (9 peak).
[a. F. piquer to prick, sting, stimulate, irritate, excite; se piquer, to take offence.]
1. trans. To prick the feelings of; to excite to anger, resentment, or enmity; to irritate; to offend by wounding pride or vanity.
| 1671 R. MacWard True Nonconf. 103 You think you picque him wittily, when you say, ‘any thing in Scripture that makes for you, call it ordinary; and what doth not please, is extraordinary’. 1673 W. Perwich Dispatches (Roy. Hist. Soc.) 264 The gentry..are malcontents..being all piqued against the C. de Monterei. 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 349 The Dev'l was piqu'd, such saintship to behold. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. ii. 76 She..piques our pride, and offends our judgment. 1796 E. Hamilton Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811) I. 233 A little picqued by the excess of his mirth. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) I. iii. 182 Piqued at this opposition to his wishes. 1862 Goulburn Pers. Relig. viii. iii. (1873) 221 This moment our vanity is piqued. 1876 Mid-Yorks. Gloss. s.v. Peak, ‘He's peaked about somewhat’. |
2. trans. To stimulate or excite to action or activity; to instigate or provoke, esp. by arousing envy, rivalry, jealousy, or other passion; to arouse, awake (curiosity, interest). † b. refl. To excite or arouse oneself, put oneself on one's mettle (obs.).
| 1698 Vanbrugh Prov. Wife i. i, My husband's barbarous usage piques me to revenge. 1736 Bolingbroke Patriot. (1749) 18 Fortune maintains a kind of rivalship with wisdom, and piques herself often in favour of fools as well as knaves. 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 67 Her vanity..prompted her to pique the Prince's attention. 1793 Minstrel I. 192 Taunting messages were reiterated to pique him to come forth. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. iii. iv, Peaking himself into flame of irritancy. 1870 H. Smart Race for Wife i, You have piqued my woman's curiosity. |
† 3. absol. or intr. To arouse a feeling of pique; to stimulate. Obs.
| 1664 J. Wilson Cheats Epil., If you must lash out, and think you can't Be wits yourselves unless you pique and rant. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 163 ¶5 Every Verse hath something in it that piques. |
† 4. intr. to pique at: to strive or vie with (another) through envy or jealousy. Obs. rare.
| 1668 Dryden Evening's Love iv. i, Women of the play⁓house, still piquing at each other, who shall go the best dressed. |
5. refl. (rarely intr.). To take pride in, plume oneself on. Const. on, upon; rarely at, in. (= F. se piquer de.)
| 1705 Pope Lett. (1736) V. 10 Men who are thought to pique themselves upon their wit. 1773 Boswell Tour Hebr. 10 Sept., We..piqued ourselves at not being outdone at the nightly ball by our less active friends. 1787 Generous Attachment II. 113 Sir Jeffry..piques himself much in the nursery of the young woodlands. 1828–40 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 1 A powerful baron who piqued himself upon his skill in his weapons. 1892 Pall Mall G. 24 June 1/3 Temperance reformers who are wont to pique on the progress of the cause in the colonies. |
Hence ˈpiquing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1794 C. Pigott Female Jockey Club 22 To entice unhappy victims into her net, and then abandon them to all the piquing severity of ridicule. 1808 Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 105 One piquing thing said, draws on another. 1854 Faber Growth in Holiness iv, A piquing of our self-love. |
▪ VIII. pique, v.2
[f. pique n.2]
In Piquet: a. trans. To win a pique from, score a pique against (one's opponent). b. intr. To score a pique.
| 1659 Shuffling, Cutting & Deal. 8, I was Pickquet the last, but am now repickqt. 1668 [see piquet1]. 1719 D'Urfey Pills V. 278 He piqu'd and repiqu'd so oft. 1830 ‘Eidrah Trebor’ Hoyle Made Fam. 49 It also piques and repiques the adversary. 1895 J. C. Snaith Dorothy Marvin vi, The mysteries..of piqueing, repiqueing and capotting. |
▪ IX. † pique, v.3
obs. f. peak v.2, to taper to a peak.
| 1756 M. Calderwood Jrnl. (1884) 307 Above that they had a brow-band, which came piquing down before, betwixt their eye brows. |