peck

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peck1

▶verb

• 1 (of a bird) strike or bite with its beak.

• 2 kiss lightly or perfunctorily.

• 3 (peck at) informal eat (food) listlessly or daintily.

• 4 type laboriously.

• 5 archaic strike with a pick or other tool.

▶noun

• 1 an act of pecking.

• 2 a light or perfunctory kiss.

• 3 archaic, informal food.

– origin ME: of unknown origin; cf. Mid. Low Ger. pekken ‘peck’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peck2

▶noun

• 1 a measure of capacity for dry goods, equal to a quarter of a bushel (2 imperial gallons = 9.092 l, or 8 US quarts = 8.81 l).

• 2 archaic a large number or amount.

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr. pek.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peck3

▶verb (of a horse) stumble as a result of striking the ground with the front rather than the flat of the hoof.

– origin var. of obs. pick ‘fix something pointed in the ground’.