peck at something
peck
noun[ C ]
uk /pek/ us /pek/

pecknoun[C] (QUICK TOUCH)

(of a bird) the action of biting, hitting, or picking up something small with its beak:
Be careful you don't get a peck in the face from one of the chickens.
In the game show, she had to brave the pecks of a dozen ostriches while covered in bird seed.
a quick kiss: 轻而快的吻，匆匆一吻
peck on the cheekShe gave me the usual peck on the cheek.她像往常一样在我脸上轻轻吻了一下。

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Animal (non-human) behaviour
accidental
apex predator
beg
behave
behaviour
behavioural science
claw
fawn
gambol
groom
homing
housebroken
migrate
monogamous
monogamously
monogamy
murmuration
nocturnal
ravening
scent

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Biting, chewing & swallowing

pecknoun[C] (AMOUNT)

an old-fashioned unit of measurement equal to 554.84 cubic inches (9.092 litres) in the UK and 537.6 cubic inches (8.810 litres) in the US :
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
The labourer then earned two pecks of wheat a day.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Measurements of volume
capacity
centilitre
cl
cubic
decilitre
dl
fl.
gal
gallon
gill
heaped
heaping
litre
measure
millilitre
ml
pt
quart
teaspoon
tin

peck | American Dictionary

peck
verb[ I/T ]
us/pek/
(of a bird) to hit, bite, or pick up something with the beak
peck
noun[ C ]
us/pek/
A peck is also a quick kiss:
Aunt Velma gave me a peck on the cheek.

Examples of peck

peck
Would the organism generalize the pecking behavior in response to a purple key?
In that research, pigeons pecked response keys in order to obtain food.
Drinking milk from a bottle where the top had been pecked by a bird was not statistically significant but there were very few subjects exposed.
However, they continue to discriminate, as shown by pecking at control beads of other colours.
The other birds get the water, and ever since then the woodpecker has been pecking at things.
Also, like battery chickens they also have their beaks removed to prevent them bullying and pecking other chickens.
We suggest that this mechanism may be very important in the ontogeny of the adult pecking response in doves.
Chickens are pecked by their social superiors in order to maintain a rigid status quo within the flock.
They suggest that perceptual mechanisms specific to each system develop gradually out of exploratory pecking on the basis of functional experience.
Frontal threatening starts to occur, and by the age of 3 weeks, pecking and kicking are added to aggressive interactions.
We have used two approaches to identify the cellular sequelae of pecking the bitter bead.
At an earlier time the pigeon begins a pattern of behavior, such as rapidly pecking a fixed number of times on a lit button.
Pairings of the keylight with food resulted in the pigeons approaching and pecking the key light rather than going to the food hopper to eat.
Pecks on incorrect keys resulted in a 5-s time-out during which the shutter was closed and key pecks were ineffective.
The pecking order of free radicals and antioxidants: lipid peroxidation, a-tocopherol and ascorbate.
See all examples of peck
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.