pique, picque (que as k)

t. & i. [PIQUE (1), 8.; Fr. piquer.] A. Transitive : I. Ordinary Language: IMG:content-1125.png:[blocks in formation] 1. To cause irritation, displeasure, or vexation. "Every verse hath something in it that piques ." -Tatler , No. 163. 2. To endeavor to excite or arouse pique or envy. " Piquing at each other, who shall go the best dre 'd." Dryden: Mock Astrologer , iii. *pl-queër', verb , * pi-queër-er' (qu as k), s. [PICKEER, V.; PICKEERER, 8.] piq-uět (q as k), *pick-ět, s . [PICKET, s .] 1. Mil .: The same as PICKET (q. v.). 2. Cards : Agame at cards played by two persons with a pack of thirty-two cards, the deuces, threes, fours, fives, and sixes of the ordinary pack being discarded; the as de pique , or seven of spades, is the highest card. In this sense sometimes pronounced pi - kět . pî-quette' (quask), s. (Fr.) A drink made by pouring water on husks of grapes; sour wine. pir-a-çỹ, *pir-a-cie, s. [Eng. pir a (te); -cy.] Fr. piraterie; Ital. & Sp. pirateria.] 1. Lit. & Law : The act, practice, or crime of robbing on the high seas. This offense at common law consists in committing those acts of robbery and depredation upon the high seas which, if committed upon land, would have amounted to felony there. But other offenses have, by various statutes, been made piracy, and liable to the same penalty. Thus trading with, or in any way aiding, known pirates, is piracy. So, too, any commander or seaman of a ship who runs away with any ship, boat, goods, ., or who voluntarily delivers such up to any pirate, is guilty of piracy. Any one who conveys or removes any person as a slave is also by statute law of most civilized nations guilty of piracy. The penalty formerly was death, whether the guilty party were a principal, or merely implicated as an acce ory, before or after the fact, but now is reduced to imprisonment. 2. Fig .: Literary theft; an infringement of the law of copyright.