Standard Lemma guide

pique

noun · verb · 19 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: pēk
  • Received-Pronunciation: /piːk/
  • General-American: /pik/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • homophone: peak
  • homophone: peek
  • homophone: peke
  • rhymes with -iːk
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈpiːkeɪ/
  • General-American: /ˈpikeɪ/
  • homophone: peke (one-syllable pronunciation)
  • homophone: piqué (two-syllable RP pronunciation)
  • rhymes with -iːk (one-syllable pronunciation)
  • General-American: /piˈkeɪ/
  • rhymes with -eɪ (GA pronunciation)
  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /paɪk/
  • homophone: pike
  • rhymes with -aɪk
  • CMU ARPABET: P IY1 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Enmity, ill feeling; (countable) a feeling of animosity or a dispute.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Irritation or resentment awakened by a social injury or slight; offence, especially taken in an emotional sense with little consideration or thought; (countable) especially in fit of pique: a transient feeling of wounded pride.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

In pique of honour: a matter, a point.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

In piquet, the right of the elder hand to count thirty in hand, or to play before the adversary counts one.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: card-games, games

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A chigger, chigoe, or jigger (Tunga penetrans), a species of tropical flea.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

midgie, sand fly, punkie, punky (US)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

Alternative form of piqué (“a kind of corded or ribbed fabric made from cotton, rayon, or silk”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable

Topics: business, manufacturing, sewing, textiles

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

Synonym of pica (“a disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, rare

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pica

Antonyms: none provided

9

verb

Meaning 9

To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fret, nettle, sting, aggravate, annoy, rankle, ruffle, antagonize, bother, disgruntle, botherate, bug, get, grate, burn up, bedevil, cheese off, devil, exasperate, frustrate, get up, grotch, hack off, hassle, irk, irritate, jazz, molest, mommick, nark, nerve, pee off, peeve, peeve off, persecute, pique, piss off, provoke, rile, rile up, roil, storm, test someone's patience, tick off, trouble, try one's patience, vex, wind up, Idioms:, boil someone's piss, chap someone's hide, get on someone's nerves, get on someone's tits, get on someone's wick, get someone's back up, get someone's dander up, get someone's goat, get someone's Irish up, get someone's nanny, get someone's nanny-goat, get under one's goat, get under someone's skin, give someone the shits, grind one's gears, harsh one's mellow, put someone's back up, raise someone's hackles, rub someone the wrong way, rub up the wrong way, ruffle someone's feathers, tee off, torque off

Antonyms: none provided

10

verb

Meaning 10

To excite (someone) to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • I believe this will pique your interest.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: excite, stimulate

Antonyms: none provided

11

verb

Meaning 11

To pride (oneself) on something.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: reflexive, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

12

verb

Meaning 12

To excite or stimulate (oneself).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete, reflexive, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

13

verb

Meaning 13

To take pride in.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

14

verb

Meaning 14

To excite to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

15

verb

Meaning 15

To express jealousy, resentment, etc. at someone; to become angry or annoyed.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive, obsolete, rare

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

16

verb

Meaning 16

To score a pique against (someone).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive, archaic, obsolete

Topics: card-games, games

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

17

noun

Meaning 17

tightly woven fabric with raised cords

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: fabric, cloth, material, textile

18

noun

Meaning 18

a sudden outburst of anger

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • his temper sparked like damp firewood

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: temper, irritation

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: annoyance, chafe, vexation

19

verb

Meaning 19

cause to feel resentment or indignation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • Her tactless remark offended me

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: offend

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: anger

History

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from French piquer (“to prick, sting; to anger, annoy; (reflexive) to get angry; to provoke, stimulate; (reflexive) to boast about”), from Middle French piquer, picquer (“to prick, sting; to anger, annoy; (reflexive) to get angry”), from Old French piquer (“to pierce with the tip of a sword”), from proto-Romance or Vulgar Latin *pīccare (“to sting; to strike”) or *pikkāre, and then either: * Onomatopoeic; or * from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to knock; to peck; to pick; to prick”). If so, pique is a doublet of pick, pitch, and peck. The noun is borrowed from Middle French pique (“a quarrel; resentment”) (modern French pique), from piquer, picquer (verb); see above.

The noun is borrowed from French pic, Middle French pic (“pique in the game of piquet; pike (tool)”), picq (“game of piquet”), from Vulgar Latin *pīccus (“sharp point, peak; pike, spike”), possibly from Frankish *pikk, *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pikjaz, *pīkaz (“sharp point, peak; pickaxe; pike”); further etymology unknown. Doublet of pike. The verb is either derived from the noun (though the latter is attested in print later), or borrowed from French pic.

Borrowed from Spanish pique, from Central Quechua piki.

A variant of piqué, borrowed from French piqué (“(noun) ribbed fabric; (ballet) step on to the point of the leading foot without bending the knee; (adjective) backstitched; (cooking) larded”), Middle French piqué (“quilted”), a noun use of the past participle of piquer (“to prick, sting; to decorate with stitches; to quilt; to stitch (fabric) together; to lard (meat)”); see further at etymology 1.

A variant of pica, or from its etymon Late Latin pica (“disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances”), from Latin pīca (“jay; magpie”) (from the idea that magpies will eat almost anything), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“magpie; woodpecker”).

Across languages

Translations

39 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: обида (obida) — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Bulgarian: засегнато самочувствие (zasegnato samočuvstvie) — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Chinese Mandarin: 恼怒 (nǎonù) — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Finnish: närkästys — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Irish: múisiam — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Italian: picca — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Italian: puntigliosità — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Italian: ripicca — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Romanian: pică — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Russian: доса́да (dosáda) — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Russian: раздраже́ние (razdražénije) — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Serbo-Croatian: у̏вреда — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Serbo-Croatian: ȕvreda — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Spanish: pique — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Spanish: resentimiento — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Turkish: darılma — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Turkish: incinme — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Turkish: kırılma — enmity, ill feeling; a feeling of animosity or a dispute
  • Czech: uražená pýcha — irritation or resentment awakened by a social injury or slight; a transient feeling of wounded pride
  • Irish: stuaic — irritation or resentment awakened by a social injury or slight; a transient feeling of wounded pride
  • Bulgarian: засягам (zasjagam) — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Czech: dotknout se — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Czech: popudit — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Czech: urazit — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • German: pikieren — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Romanian: supăra — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Romanian: ofensa — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Russian: уязвля́ть (ujazvljátʹ) — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Spanish: encender — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Spanish: picar — to wound the pride of (someone)
  • Bulgarian: възбуждам (vǎzbuždam) — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Chinese Mandarin: 激起(兴趣 — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Chinese Mandarin: 好奇心) (jīqǐ) — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Czech: vzbudit — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Czech: vyvolat — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Spanish: picar — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Spanish: azuzar — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Spanish: encorajinar — to excite (someone) to action; to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest)
  • Spanish: picarse — to take pride in