Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A state of vexation caused by a perceived slight or indignity; a feeling of wounded pride.
- transitive verb To cause to feel resentment or indignation.
- transitive verb To provoke; arouse.
- transitive verb To pride (oneself).
from The Century Dictionary.
- To sting, in a figurative sense; nettle; irritate; offend; fret; excite a degree of anger in.
- To stimulate or excite to action by arousing envy, jealousy, or other passion in a somewhat slight degree.
- Reflexively, to pride or value (one's self).
- Synonyms To displease, vex, provoke. See
pique , n. - To win a pique from. See
pique , n., 4. - noun A point or peak.
- noun A point of conduct; punctilio.
- noun A blind tick, Argas nigra, capable of causing painful sores on cattle and men. See
Argas . - noun The jigger, chigoe, or chique. See
Sarcopsylla . - noun In the game of piquet, the winning of thirty points before one's opponent scores at all in the same deal, entitling the winner to add thirty more to his score.
- noun A quarrel; dispute; strife.
- noun A feeling of anger, irritation, displeasure, or resentment arising from wounded pride, vanity, or self-love; wounded pride; slight umbrage or offense taken.
- noun Synonyms Pique and umbrage differ from the words compared under animosily (which see) in that they are not necessarily or generally attended by a desire to injure the person toward whom the feeling is entertained. They are both purely personal. Pique is more likely to be a matter of injured self-respect or self-conceit; it is a quick feeling, and is more fugitive in character. Umbrage is founded upon the idea of being thrown into the shade or overshadowed; hence, it has the sense of offense at being slighted or not sufficiently recognized; it is indefinite as to the strength or the permanence of the feeling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The jigger. See
jigger . - intransitive verb To cause annoyance or irritation.
- noun A feeling of hurt, vexation, or resentment, awakened by a social slight or injury; irritation of the feelings, as through wounded pride; stinging vexation.
- noun Keenly felt desire; a longing.
- noun (Card Playing) In piquet, the right of the elder hand to count thirty in hand, or to play before the adversary counts one.
- transitive verb To wound the pride of; to sting; to nettle; to irritate; to fret; to offend; to excite to anger.
- transitive verb To excite to action by causing resentment or jealousy; to stimulate; to prick.
- transitive verb To pride or value; -- used reflexively.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
chigger orjigger , Tunga penetrans. - noun A feeling of
enmity between two entities; ill-feeling,animosity ; atransient feeling of wounded pride. - noun A feeling of
irritation orresentment , awakened by a social slight or injury;offence , especially taken in an emotional sense with little thought or consideration. - verb transitive To wound the pride of; to sting; to nettle; to irritate; to fret; to excite to anger.
- verb reflexive To
take pride in ; to pride oneselfon . - verb transitive To excite (someone) to action by causing resentment or jealousy; to
stimulate (a feeling, emotion); to offend by slighting. - noun A
durable ribbed fabric made fromcotton ,rayon , orsilk . - noun In
piquet , the right of the elder hand to count thirty in hand, or to play before the adversary counts one.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun tightly woven fabric with raised cords
- verb cause to feel resentment or indignation
- noun a sudden outburst of anger
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As to ----, your doing anything in 'pique' is quite unworthy of you, and it only recoils on yourself; the harder we strike, whether in revenge or justice, it comes back upon ourselves with far more pain than we have wished to inflict.
Selections from the Letters of Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury to Jane Welsh Carlyle 1892
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These are nasty birds and pique is too delicate a word to describe what burns inside them.
WaPo calls White House ‘Agnewesque.’ - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009
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Holding that kind of work up out of pique is really and truly outrageous and deserves to be described as such unleavened by strained efforts to hit both sides.
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"To pique" is a French word meaning to anger or to excite or arouse a feeling in someone.
SeeLight: 2008
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"To pique" is a French word meaning to anger or to excite or arouse a feeling in someone.
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The line from the Clinton aide about McCain, in retrospect, breaking with his party in 2000-2 because of personal pique is interesting.
What’s Next for Hillary Clinton? - Swampland - TIME.com 2008
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What emerged from that little pique is this multifaceted portrait of a vivacious lady who channeled the excitement of mid-20th century politics and social issues into her own jazzy drawings.
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What emerged from that little pique is this multifaceted portrait of a vivacious lady who channeled the excitement of mid-20th century politics and social issues into her own jazzy drawings.
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The spade, or pique as it was known in France where it originated, probably evolved from the German leaf, although the word pique means sword.
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Would the Arab governments reject such an offer flatly, in pique, and turn UNRWA over to the Russians?
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Circa 1850, this beautiful French bracelet is an excellent example of piqué work, which is a decorative technique in which tiny pins of gold or silver are inlaid into tortoiseshell.
Antique betrothal rings, the Dancing Marquess and some octopus spoons Monica McLaughlin 2021
brtom commented on the word pique
You pique my curiosity, Haines said amiably. Is it some paradox?
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
laiane commented on the word pique
I've never seen this "woven fabric" definition. I've always used this as in brtom's comment.
November 30, 2007
seanahan commented on the word pique
I've often heard the expression "fit of pique", using the primary definition of "A state of vexation caused by a perceived slight or indignity; a feeling of wounded pride" to mean acting out of wounded pride.
December 1, 2007
minerva commented on the word pique
But my brother and sister have such an influence over everybody, and are so determined; so pique themselves upon subduing me and carrying their point; that I despair that they will...
Clarissa Harlowe to Anna Howe, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
December 4, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word pique
I really hate when people spell "fit of pique" with "peak." Grrr.
April 29, 2008
reesetee commented on the word pique
But what if, say, you order an ice cream sundae with no whipped cream, and the waitron brings you one topped with a giant crest of it? Then you would reasonably be entitled to a fit of peak, don't you think?
April 29, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word pique
Only in that case, yes. But you would more correctly call it a fit of peak pique. No?
April 29, 2008
reesetee commented on the word pique
Or, say, you're about to summit one of the Fourteeners and a massive snowstorm blows in, so you have to turn back. A fit of peak!
April 29, 2008
jennarenn commented on the word pique
Dang, reestee. *I* wanted to whip c_b into a fit of peek. No fair!
April 29, 2008
reesetee commented on the word pique
Oh, jump right in, jennarenn! The more the merrier! I haven't even started on peek yet. ;-)
April 29, 2008
frindley commented on the word pique
(Digressing back to Laiane's comment…)
When used in reference to fabric it's usually pronounced pee-kay, and in fact the NSOED's preferred spelling for this sense is piqué. (But "pique" is allowed as an alternative.)
April 29, 2008
reesetee commented on the word pique
Oh, you're not the digressor here, frindley. :-)
April 29, 2008
sionnach commented on the word pique
I defer to the wisdom of Picabo Street on this matter.
April 29, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word pique
But nobody ever has a fit of piqué, that I know of. And if they did, they'd probably spell it wrong.
Does anyone ever have a fit of Picabo Street?
April 29, 2008
reesetee commented on the word pique
Why do you hate freedom?
April 29, 2008
john commented on the word pique
The Merriam Webster definition is poetic: "a transient feeling of wounded vanity."
July 21, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word pique
see pique-a-boo
July 21, 2008
plethora commented on the word pique
I just came here to whinge about people who mix this up with peak ("you've peaked my interest"), only to find chained_bear beat me by 10 months!
March 4, 2009
wordwench commented on the word pique
Frankly, velvet would make a better verb.
'Velvet your words, lad, lest I should rip them from your tongue.'
But I digress, being piqued and at my peak.
March 4, 2009
reesetee commented on the word pique
As bad as when people ask you to "take a peak" at something. It puts me in a fit of pique.
March 4, 2009
sionnach commented on the word pique
reesetee; I share your peek.
March 5, 2009
thesaraheffect commented on the word pique
Oddly enough, I've stumbled upon this word after considering "in a fit of pique" as an appropriate alternative to "took umbrage" because, silly me, I thought the phrase was overused.
Now, two hours later, I am a better woman. I realize now that I have never fully understood the rich history that attends the act of taking umbrage and will never accept anything less than umbrage again.
September 17, 2009
reesetee commented on the word pique
Ah, another convert.
September 17, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word pique
Picabo is an Idaho town that skier Picabo Street was named after. Bodie is a ?Montana ghost town that another skier (Bodie Miller) was presumably named after. Does this observation of obscure western town names as a source of snow skier's names pique anyone's interest? Cody (Wyoming) doesn't count, the rodeo cowboys have that ownership claimed already.
September 17, 2009
bilby commented on the word pique
I thought Picabo was a game you play with babies.
September 17, 2009
thesaraheffect commented on the word pique
No, no, that's "peek-a-boo." As in you "peek" at a...you know...a "boo"...obviously.
September 26, 2009
myth17 commented on the word pique
I often do pique myself on my stylish attire. ;)
August 15, 2012
marky commented on the word pique
why does this word have so many contradicting definitions?
July 22, 2014
bilby commented on the word pique
Are you trying to pique a fight marky?
July 23, 2014
marky commented on the word pique
yes, for piques sake.
July 23, 2014
qms commented on the word pique
Pique? Aren't those the two letters sandwiched between O and R?
July 23, 2014