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The fourth part of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; as, a peck of wheat. "A peck of provender." Shak.

One who, or that which, pecks; specif., a bird that pecks holes in trees; a woodpecker.

Inclined to eat; hungry. [Colloq.] "When shall I feel peckish again" Beaconsfield.

Speckled; spotted. [Obs.]

To mark with speckles or spots. Milton.

A Russian copper coin. See Kopeck.

The European garden warbler (Sylvia, or Currica, hortensis); -- called also beccafico and greater pettychaps.

A speck or stain made by the excrement of a fly; hence, any insignificant dot.

To subject to petty authority; -- said of a wife who thus treats her husband. Commonly used in the past participle (often adjectively).

Having so marked an appearance as easily to be recognized. [Scot.]

A small Russian coin. One hundred kopecks make a rouble, worth about sixty cents. [Written also kopek, copec, and copeck.]

The nuthatch.

An African bird of the genus Buphaga; the beefeater.

The blubber of whales or other marine mammals; also, the fat of the hippopotamus. Speck falls (Naut.), falls or ropes rove through blocks for hoisting the blubber and bone of whales on board a whaling vessel.

ferent substance or color from that of the thing itself. An huge great serpent, all with speckles pied. Spebser.

r variegated with small spots of a different color from that of the rest of the surface. Speckled Indians (Ethnol.), the Pintos. -- Speckled trout. (Zoöl.) (a) The common American brook trout. See Trout. (b) The rainbow trout.

The gadwall. [Local, U.S.]

The American white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons).

The quality of being speckled.

The chief harpooner, who also directs in cutting up the speck, or blubber; -- so called among whalers.