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pique

[peek]

verb (used with object)

to affect with sharp irritation and resentment, especially by some wound to pride: She was greatly piqued when they refused her invitation.

to wound (the pride, vanity, etc.).

to excite (interest, curiosity, etc.): Her curiosity was piqued by the gossip.

to arouse an emotion or provoke to action: to pique someone to answer a challenge.

Archaic. to pride (oneself) (usually followed by on or upon).

verb (used without object)

to arouse pique in someone: an action that piqued when it was meant to soothe.

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Pique is a GRE word you need to know.

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changeable

deserving blame or censure; blameworthy

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noun

a feeling of irritation or resentment, as from a wound to pride or self-esteem: to be in a pique.

Obsolete. a state of irritated feeling between persons.

Origin:
1525–35; < Middle French pique (noun), piquer (v.) < Vulgar Latin *piccare to pick¹; see pickax, pike², piqué

Related forms

un·piqued, adjective

Synonyms
1. offend, sting, nettle, vex, irritate, chafe. 2. affront. 3. stimulate, stir, prick, incite, goad.

Antonyms
1. please. 2. compliment.

Example Sentences

Summer blockbuster season is months away, but there's plenty to pique young moviegoers' interest this spring.

But its pique is likely to be short-lived.

Cotton pin stripes were cut into little smock shirts with white pique plackets, worn with crisp white cotton shorts.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun Piquet.

pic².

noun, adjective

piqué.

noun

a fabric of cotton, spun rayon, or silk, woven lengthwise with raised cords.

Ballet. a step in which the dancer steps onto the tip of the toe without bending the knee.

ornamentation by means of punched or stippled patterns, sometimes inlaid with metal, ivory, tortoise shell, etc.

adjective

(of glove seams and gloves) stitched through lapping edges.

decorated with inlay: a piqué box.

Also, pique.

Origin:
1830–40; < French, past participle of piquer to quilt, prick; see pique¹

Can be confused: peak, peek, pique, piqué.

Link To pique

Collins

World English Dictionary

pique¹ (piːk)

—n
1.	a feeling of resentment or irritation, as from having one's pride wounded

—vb (foll by on or upon) , piques, piquing, piqued
2.	to cause to feel resentment or irritation
3.	to excite or arouse
4.	to pride or congratulate (oneself)

[C16: from French, from piquer to prick, sting; see pick¹]

pique² (piːk)

—n
1.	a score of 30 points made by a player from a combination of cards held before play begins and from play while his opponent's score is nil

—vb
2.	to score a pique (against)

[C17: from French pic, of uncertain origin]

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

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

pique

1532, "fit of ill feeling," from M.Fr. pique "a prick, sting, irritation," from O.Fr. (see pike (2)). The verb, in the sense of "to excite to anger" is attested from 1671.

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Matching Quote

"Stripped of incidental ornaments, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are seen as the same dream dreamed twice over, the second time as nightmare; though, to be sure, the terror of the second dream is already at work in the first, whose euphoria persists strangely into the second. In both books, there is a pretended, a quasi-ritual death to the community and its moral codes; though in Tom Sawyer that death is a "lark" undertaken in childish pique, while in Huckleberry Finn it is a last desperate evasion, an act of self-defense. In both, there is a consequent spying on the community from cover to watch the effects of that death, the aftermath of regret: the childish dream of the suicide, who longs to be present at his own discovery, come true. In the one case, however, the spying is a prelude to a triumphant return, a revelation, in the other, to a further flight and concealment."

-Leslie Fiedler

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