Definition of picket

• n. - A stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles; or one used for tethering horses.
• n. - A pointed pale, used in marking fences.
• n. - A detached body of troops serving to guard an army from surprise, and to oppose reconnoitering parties of the enemy; -- called also outlying picket.
• n. - By extension, men appointed by a trades union, or other labor organization, to intercept outsiders, and prevent them from working for employers with whom the organization is at variance.
• n. - A military punishment, formerly resorted to, in which the offender was forced to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.
• n. - A game at cards. See Piquet.
• v. t. - To fortify with pointed stakes.
• v. t. - To inclose or fence with pickets or pales.
• v. t. - To tether to, or as to, a picket; as, to picket a horse.
• v. t. - To guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket.
• v. t. - To torture by compelling to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.