PICKET

vt to fortify with pointed stakes.

2. picket ·noun a pointed pale, used in marking fences.

3. picket ·vt to inclose or fence with pickets or pales.

4. picket ·noun a game at cards. ·see piquet.

5. picket ·vt to guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket.

6. picket ·vt to tether to, or as to, a picket; as, to picket a horse.

7. picket ·vt to torture by compelling to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.

8. picket ·noun a military punishment, formerly resorted to, in which the offender was forced to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.

9. picket ·noun a stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles; or one used for tethering horses.

10. picket ·noun a detached body of troops serving to guard an army from surprise, and to oppose reconnoitering parties of the enemy;

— called also outlying picket.

11. picket ·noun 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.