pickeer means to make a raid for booty; to maraud. It carries an Arena rating of 1501, earned across 138 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pickeer ranks #974 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,436 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #1,759 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,770 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
Why “pickeer” is a great word
PICKEER — [Verb] To skirmish in advance of an army or to raid for plunder. From French picorer ("to go marauding, originally to steal cattle"), from Latin pecoris, genitive of pecus ("cattle"). First attested in English in 1659. Unlike "skirmish," which suggests any minor, irregular clash, or "forage," which implies a search for sustenance, to pickeer is to launch a forward, predatory probe driven by the hunger for spoils. It is the ragged volley from a screen of dragoons on a wooded flank, the sudden torch-flare in a barn as grain-sacks are slung over shoulders, and the muffled jingle of harnesses carrying off stolen cattle—a small, sharp violence that tests the enemy's line while filling one's own pockets, a reminder that the vanguard of war is often just organized theft.
Etymology
From French picorer (“to go marauding, originally to steal cattle”), ultimately from Latin pecoris (“cattle”).
verb
- To make a raid for booty; to maraud.
- To skirmish in advance of an army.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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