Nearby Words

picnic

[pik-nik] Origin

pic·nic

[pik-nik] noun, verb, -nicked, -nick·ing.
noun
1.
an excursion or outing in which the participants carry food with them and share a meal in the open air.
2.
the food eaten on such an excursion.
3.
Also called picnic ham, picnic shoulder. a section of pork shoulder, usually boned, smoked, and weighing 4–6 pounds. Compare daisy (def. 2).
4.
Informal. an enjoyable experience or time, easy task, etc.: Being laid up in a hospital is no picnic.
verb (used without object)
5.
to go on or take part in a picnic.

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Picnic is one of our favorite verbs.
So is yaff. Does it mean:
to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
to bark; yelp.

Origin:
1740–50; < German Pic-nic (now Picknick) < French pique-nique, rhyming compound < ?

pic·nick·er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
picnic (ˈpɪknɪk)
 
n
1.  a trip or excursion to the country, seaside, etc, on which people bring food to be eaten in the open air
2.  a.  any informal meal eaten outside
 b.  (as modifier): a picnic lunch
3.  informal chiefly (Austral) a troublesome situation or experience
4.  informal no picnic a hard or disagreeable task
 
vb , -nics, -nicking, -nicked
5.  (intr) to eat a picnic
 
[C18: from French piquenique, of unknown origin]
 
'picnicker
 
n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

picnic
1748 (in Chesterfield's "Letters"), but rare before c.1800 as an Eng. institution, from Fr. piquenique (1692), perhaps a reduplication of piquer "to pick, peck," from O.Fr. (see pike (2)), or the second element may be nique "worthless thing," from a Gmc. source. Originally
EXPAND
a fashionable pot-luck social affair, not necessarily out of doors. Figurative sense of "something easy" is from 1886.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

picnic definition


  1. n.
    a good time; an easy time. : Nothing to it. A real picnic.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

picnic

see no picnic.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Idioms & Phrases
Images for picnic
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