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
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)