peck at

phrasal verb

pecked at; pecking at; pecks at

: to take small bites of (food)

Her son pecked at his food and said he wasn't hungry.

Examples of peck at in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The downy also can peck at galls or protrusions on goldenrod plants where insect eggs are lurking. —Sheryl De Vore, Chicago Tribune, 21 Jan. 2025

Drones peck at the buildings of Gaza like giant birds. —David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 6 Jan. 2025

There were also live birds pecking at dead birds, and dozens of birds with visible wounds — each a sign of cannibalism, a persistent problem in turkey farming. —Kenny Torrella, Vox, 26 Nov. 2024

Sat on the front row by the railing, Balthazar, attached to his owner only by a thin piece of string, stayed close, minding his own business, pecking at little bits of corn and bread and taking sips of water. —Charlotte Harpur, The Athletic, 9 July 2024

Luna feels calmer under the warmth of the sun, and while the chickens peck at the damp ground, Aleida takes advantage of the moment. —Unicef Usa, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

This fall, a 16-foot-tall pigeon — its chest puffed out proudly, head high, not down pecking at some errant pizza crust, its pitiless red-eye gaze looking out over the traffic — will alight on the spur of the High Line that bridges Tenth Avenue at 30th Street. —Carl Swanson, Curbed, 31 July 2024

The elm was torn, up high, and from the tear ran sap the warbler pecked at, for the sweet itself or for the insects smudged in it. —Caleb Crain, The New York Review of Books, 26 Sep. 2024

In Akron, Luca the juvenile Andean condor has spent time pecking at ice between sessions of ripping apart paper, an exercise meant to mimic the bird’s natural behavior of ripping apart carcasses. —Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY, 21 June 2024

Rhymes for peck at

• begat
• bobcat
• chitchat
• doormat
• ducat
• eclat
• format
• hazmat
• muskrat
• nonfat
• polecat
• thereat