or pek, subs. (old cant).—1. Food of any kind; GRUB (q.v.); a meal; a feed: also PECKAGE. Hence RUFF-PECK (q.v.) = bacon; GERE-PECK = a turd; PECK AND BOOZE = meat and drink; RUM-PECK (q.v.) = good eating; GRUNTING-PECK = pork; OFF ONE’S PECK = without appetite, ‘off one’s feed.’—HARMAN (1567); HEAD (1665); B. E. (c. 1696); DYCHE (1748); GROSE (1785).
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 8]. A GERE PECK in thy gan. Ibid. [Hunterian Club’s Reprint (1874), 40]. PECKAGE meat or Scroofe scraps.
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle, v. 1.
| A gage of ben rom-bouse … | |
| Is benar than a caster, | |
| PECK, pennam, lay, or popler, | |
| Which we mill in deuse a vile. |
1621. JONSON, Gipsies Metamorphosed.
| With the convoy, cheats [goods] and PECKAGE, | |
| Out of clutch of Harman—Beckage. |
1641. R. BROME, A Joviall Crew [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 23]. Here, safe in our Skipper, let’s cly off our PECK.
1706. CENTLIVRE, The Basset-table, Prologue.
| Free from poor Housekeeping; where PECK is under Locks, | |
| Free from Cold Kitchens, and no Christmas-Box. |
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, vii. The PECK and booze are lying about in such lots that it would supply numerous poor families.
1836. W. H. SMITH, The Thieves’ Chaunt [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 121].
| Oh! GRUNTING PECK in its eating | |
| Is a richly soft and savoury thing. |
1843. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, i. 2. Hurrah:—the PECK. Ibid., iii. 1. I don’t care how soon after this walk I bite my name in for a PECK.
1884. Daily Telegraph, 30 July, 2, 1. A pint of cocoa, five slices of thick bread and butter, and a bloater! Or a fair PECK without the relish—a pint of cocoa or coffee, and as much bread and butter as you can eat, for the same money!
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 71. Gives yer the primest of PECKS.
2. See RACING-PECK.
Verb. (old cant: now colloquial).—1. To eat.
c. 1536. COPLAND, The Hye-way to the Spyttel-hous [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 2].
| Thou shall PEK my jere | |
| In thy gan. |
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 39 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. PECKE is taken to eate and byte: as the Buffa peckes me by the stampes, the dogge bites me by the shinnes.
1665. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I. iv. 36 (1874). The night we spent in Boozing, PECKING rumly.
1703. Levellers [Harleian Miscellany (PARK), V. 454]. So they all fell heartily to PECKING till they had consumed the whole provision.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, vii. Jerry … Complained that he could not PECK as he wished.
1867. DICKENS, No Thoroughfare, i. But if you wish to board me and to lodge me, take me. I can PECK as well as most men.
2. (colloquial).—To pitch; to throw.
1856. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, II. iv. I’ve been longing for some good honest PECKING this half hour.
