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 or jigger, Tunga penetrans.
  • noun A feeling of enmity between two entities; ill-feeling, animosity; a transient feeling of wounded pride.
  • noun A feeling of irritation or resentment, 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 oneself on.
  • 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 from cotton, rayon, or silk.
  • 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

[French, a prick, irritation, from Old French, from piquer, to prick, from Vulgar Latin *piccāre, ultimately of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French piqué from past participle of French piquer ("to prick, quilt")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Spanish pique, from Central Quechua piki.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle French pique ("a prick, sting"), from Old French pic ("a sharp point"). Etymological twin to pike ("long pointed weapon").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French pic.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pique.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • You pique my curiosity, Haines said amiably. Is it some paradox?

    Joyce, Ulysses, 1

    December 29, 2006

  • I've never seen this "woven fabric" definition. I've always used this as in brtom's comment.

    November 30, 2007

  • 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

  • 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

  • I really hate when people spell "fit of pique" with "peak." Grrr.

    April 29, 2008

  • 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

  • Only in that case, yes. But you would more correctly call it a fit of peak pique. No?

    April 29, 2008

  • 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

  • Dang, reestee. *I* wanted to whip c_b into a fit of peek. No fair!

    April 29, 2008

  • Oh, jump right in, jennarenn! The more the merrier! I haven't even started on peek yet. ;-)

    April 29, 2008

  • (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

  • Oh, you're not the digressor here, frindley. :-)

    April 29, 2008

  • I defer to the wisdom of Picabo Street on this matter.

    April 29, 2008

  • 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

  • Why do you hate freedom?

    April 29, 2008

  • The Merriam Webster definition is poetic: "a transient feeling of wounded vanity."

    July 21, 2008

  • see pique-a-boo

    July 21, 2008

  • 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

  • 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

  • As bad as when people ask you to "take a peak" at something. It puts me in a fit of pique.

    March 4, 2009

  • reesetee; I share your peek.

    March 5, 2009

  • 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

  • Ah, another convert.

    September 17, 2009

  • 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

  • I thought Picabo was a game you play with babies.

    September 17, 2009

  • No, no, that's "peek-a-boo." As in you "peek" at a...you know...a "boo"...obviously.

    September 26, 2009

  • I often do pique myself on my stylish attire. ;)

    August 15, 2012

  • why does this word have so many contradicting definitions?

    July 22, 2014

  • Are you trying to pique a fight marky?

    July 23, 2014

  • yes, for piques sake.

    July 23, 2014

  • Pique? Aren't those the two letters sandwiched between O and R?

    July 23, 2014