picket

Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

picket [picket pickets picketed picketing] noun, verb BrE [ˈpɪkɪt] NAmE [ˈpɪkɪt]
noun
1. a person or group of people who stand outside the entrance to a building in order to protest about sth, especially in order to stop people from entering a factory, etc. during a strike; an occasion at which this happens
•Five pickets were arrested by police.
•I was on picket duty at the time.
•a mass picket of the factory
see also ↑flying picket, ↑picketer
2. a soldier or group of soldiers guarding a military base
3. a pointed piece of wood that is fixed in the ground, especially as part of a fence
•a picket fence

Word Origin:
late 17th cent. (denoting a pointed stake, on which a soldier was required to stand on one foot as a military punishment): from French piquet ‘pointed stake’, from piquer ‘to prick’, from pic ‘pike’.

Example Bank:
•Flying pickets arrived from all over the country.
•They organized a mass picket of the governor's palace.
•angry people with picket signs

 
verb transitive, intransitive ~ (sth)
to stand outside somewhere such as your place of work to protest about sth or to try and persuade people to join a strike
•200 workers were picketing the factory.
•Striking workers picketed outside the gates.
Verb forms:

Word Origin:
late 17th cent. (denoting a pointed stake, on which a soldier was required to stand on one foot as a military punishment): from French piquet ‘pointed stake’, from piquer ‘to prick’, from pic ‘pike’.
 

• Từ đồng nghĩa / Synonyms:
  piquet, pale, lookout, lookout man, sentinel, sentry, watch, spotter, scout