▪ I. picaroon, n.1
(pɪkəˈruːn)
Also 7– pick-, 7 (pich-), picqu-, piqu-, 8– picc-; 7 -aroone, -aroune, -eroone, -eron, 7–8 -eroon.
[a. Sp. picaron, augm. of picaro, rogue.]
1. A rogue, a knave; a thief, a brigand.
(Sometimes playfully as a term of endearment: cf. rogue.)
| 1629 Wadsworth Pilgr. viii. 85, I answered, that he looked like a Picheron. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 164 Your diamond hat-band which the Picaroon snatched from you in the coach. 1684 Otway Atheist ii. i, Are you there indeed, my little Picaroon? 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. xxiii. 127 Thou who art worse than a pickeroon in love. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xx, I see in thy countenance something of the pedlar—something of the picaroon. 1904 Burgess & Irwin (title) The picaroons, a San Francisco night's entertainment. 1924 H. Landon (title) The elusive picaroon. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 87/2 Picaroon, thief who preys on tourists. |
2. A pirate, sea-robber, corsair. Also fig.
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia v. 184 Meeting a French Piccaroune..hee..tooke from them what hee liked. c 1681 Hickeringill Trimmer Wks. 1716 I. 355 A Letter of Mart against the Common-Piqueroon of all good Mens Reputations. 1700 tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 191 The Streight of Sunda was very much infested with Pickaroons. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 242 Somewhat of a trader, something more of a smuggler, with a considerable dash of the pickaroon. 1881 W. Wallace in Academy 15 Oct. 289 A crew of social picaroons. |
3. a. A small pirate ship; a privateer or corsair.
| 1625 Impeachm. Dk. Buckhm. (Camden) 11 Theis Picaroones..will ever lye hankering upon our coaste. 1658 R. Haddock in Camden Soc. Misc. (1881) 5 Heere escaped out a small pickeron of 4 or 6 guns. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Pickaroon, a very small Privateer. 1775 Jefferson Let. Writ. 1892 I. 496 Montgomery had proceeded in quest of Carleton and his small fleet of 11 pickeroons. 1885 Daily Tel. 21 May 5/3 Strong exception is taken by the advocates of privateering to such words as corsair, picaroon, and the like being applied to a vessel armed with the authority of a letter of marque. |
b. (With reference to barracoon.) A slave-ship.
| 1893 Kipling Seven Seas (1896) 23 Then said the souls of the slaves that men threw overboard: ‘Kennelled in the picaroon a weary band were we.’ |
4. attrib. and Comb.
| 1667 Pepys Diary 28 Dec., The very Ostend little pickaroon men-of-war do offer violence to our merchant-men. 1858 Athenæum 1 May 556 What was the end of this picaroon woman? 1889 Doyle Micah Clarke 224 That lean, rakish, long-sparred, picaroon-like craft. |
▪ II. picaˈroon, n.2 N. Amer.
[? F. piqueron a little pike, a javelin, dart, prick, goad (Cotgr.), f. pique pike, piquer to prick.]
A long pole fitted with a spike or hook, used in logging and fishing.
| 1837 North Amer. Rev. Apr. 354 The rafters..[make] use of a picaroon, or pole with a spike in the end of it, which is..driven into the boards, taking out perhaps a piece at each time. 1850 S. Judd R. Edney 42 Richard, armed with a picaroon, descended the slip..to the basin, where the logs lay in the water ready to be drawn in. 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1905 Bull. Bureau of Forestry (U.S. Dept. Agric.) No. 61, 43 Pickaroon, a piked pole fitted with a curved hook, used in holding boats to jams in driving, and for pulling logs from brush and eddies out into the current. 1949 N. C. Brown Logging ii. v. 101 Pickaroons are short poles 35{pp} to 40{pp} long with a recurved pike or hook used in drawing or pulling small products such as cross ties, 4{p} pulpwood, fuel wood, chemical wood, cooperage, and bolts down steep slopes. 1972 F. Ford Atush Inlet viii. 78 The crew worked with picaroons spiking the fish into the scow. |
▪ III. picaroon, v.
(pɪkəˈruːn)
[f. picaroon n.1]
1. intr. To play the pirate or brigand; to cruise about, skirmish, or keep watch for a prize. Also fig.
| 1675 Crowne Country Wit iii. i, These Night-corsairs and Algerines call'd the Watch, that pickaroon up and down in the streets. 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Pickeroon,..to skirmish as light horsemen do, before the main battle begins. 1860 All Year Round No. 71. 492 The gates were strictly guarded, the spies pickarooning at every corner. 1894 Ralph in Harper's Mag. Aug. 337 Some of these raiders called their peculiar work by the name of ‘picarooning’. |
2. trans. To act piratically towards; to prey upon, pillage; in quot. fig.
| 1681 Hickeringill Char. Sham Plotter Wks. 1716 I. 212 He is the Land-Pirate, that Pickaroons Men's Lives and Estates, by putting out false Colours. |
Hence picaˈrooning vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1625 Impeachm. Dk. Buckhm. (Camden) 220 The Admirall of France..is only ruld and led by these picqueroning Captaines. 1727 Bailey vol. II, Pickering, Pickerooning,..going a plundering; also Skirmishing. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Picqueering, Pickeering, or Pickerooning, a little flying war, or skirmish, which the soldiers make when detached from their bodies, for pillage, or before a main battle begins. 1903 Blackw. Mag. July 36/1 A summer's picarooning off Flores. |