pecking order

noun

variants or less commonly peck order

1

: the basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation and submits to pecking by one of higher rank

broadly : a dominance hierarchy in a group of social animals

2

: a social hierarchy

Examples of pecking order in a Sentence

As an assistant manager, he was pretty low in the company's pecking order.

the pecking order of Washington politics

Recent Examples on the Web

Both men seem to have a rock-solid position on the WWE pecking order. —Brian Mazique, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

With the huge distributor-producer groups only getting bigger – Banijay is snaffling up libraries, All3Media has a rich new owner – and the Hollywood studios are back in the TV sales business, where does Sphere Abacus sit in the pecking order? —Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2024

While the top teams earn huge revenues from sponsorship, TV deals, and commercial deals, further down the pecking order, player trading is the main way clubs can make a profit. —Steve Price, Forbes, 6 Oct. 2024

Raygun, meanwhile, upended this pecking order, and accomplished what all of those sports marketers could never do. —Frederick Dreier, Outside Online, 4 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1927, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

pecking order

noun

variants also peck order

1

: a basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without being pecked in return and allows pecking by one of higher rank

2

: a social order with ranks or classes

Medical Definition

pecking order

noun

peck·​ing order ˈpek-iŋ-ˌ 

variants also peck order

ˈpek-ˌ 

: the basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation and submits to pecking by one of higher rank compare cannibalism sense 3, dominance sense a