picket Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
lookout; sentry; watch; lookout man; scout; spotter; sentinel.
noun a detachment of troops guarding an army from surprise attack
noun a protester posted by a labor organization outside a place of work
noun a vehicle performing sentinel duty
noun a wooden strip forming part of a fence
pale.
noun a form of military punishment used by the British in the late 17th century in which a soldier was forced to stand on one foot on a pointed stake
piquet.
verb serve as pickets or post pickets
- picket a business to protest the layoffs
verb fasten with a picket
- picket the goat

F. piquet, properly dim. of pique spear, pike. See Pike, and cf. Piquet.

A stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles; or one used for tethering horses.
A pointed pale, used in marking fences.
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.
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 any individual standing at the entrance to a building (typically a business establishement), usually for the purpose of inhibiting or preventing others from entering that establishment, but sometimes only for demonstration or protest, and usually bearing a sign informing others of the nature of the grievance causing the picketing.
A military punishment, formerly resorted to, in which the offender was forced to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.
A game at cards. See Piquet.

imperfect & past participle Picketed; present participle & verbal noun Picketing