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To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.

d a handle inserted at the middle; a hammer with a flattened end for driving wedges and a pointed end for piercing as it strikes. Shak.

Pointed; sharp. "Picked and polished." Chapman. Let the stake be made picked at the top. Mortimer.

The state of being sharpened; pointedness.

A stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles; or one used for tethering horses.

Done or made as with a pointed tool; as, a picking sound.

To thrust into, penetrate, or transfix, with a pointed instrument. "I pierce . . . her tender side." Dryden.

A foot soldier's weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a pointed steel head. It is now superseded by the bayonet.

A pointed beard. [Obs.]

Furnished with a pike; ending in a point; peaked; pointed. "With their piked targets bearing them down." Milton.

A large stake, or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.

Zoöl.), a large American woodpecker (Ceophloeus pileatus). It is black, with a bright red pointed crest. Called also logcock, and woodcock.

Having a pile or point; pointed. [Obs.] "Magus threw a spear well piled." Chapman.

Especially, a small, pointed and headed piece of brass or other wire (commonly tinned), largely used for fastening clothes, attaching papers, etc.

Anything resembling a pinnacle; a lofty peak; a pointed summit. Three silent pinnacles of aged snow. Tennyson. The slippery tops of human state, The gilded pinnacles of fate. Cowley.

object or use; position; ground; site; spot; rarely, unbounded space. Here is the place appointed. Shak. What place can be for us Within heaven's bound Milton. The word place has sometimes a more confused sense, and stands for that space which any body takes up; and so the universe is a place. Locke.…

In the appointed place. [Obs.]

Fig.: Pointed; keen; satirical. His wit . . . became more lively and poignant. Sir W. Scott.

ierces, as a sort of needle used by engravers, etchers, lace workers, and others; also, a pointed cutting tool, as a stone cutter's point; -- called also pointer.

of the apparent right line of a ball discharged. -- Point-blank shot, the shot of a gun pointed directly toward the object to be hit.