Adjacent Words

picnic definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a day devoted to an outdoor social gathering [syn: field day, outing, picnic]
2: any undertaking that is easy to do; "marketing this product will be no picnic" [syn: cinch, breeze, picnic, snap, duck soup, child's play, pushover, walkover, piece of cake]
3: any informal meal eaten outside or on an excursion v
1: eat alfresco, in the open air; "We picnicked near the lake on this gorgeous Sunday"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: German or French; German Picknick, from French pique-nique Date: 1826 1. an excursion or outing with food usually provided by members of the group and eaten in the open; also the food provided for a picnic 2. a. a pleasant or amusingly carefree experience <I don't expect being married to be a picnic — Josephine Pinckney> b. an easy task or feat 3. a shoulder of pork with much of the butt removed • picnicky adjective II. intransitive verb (picnicked; picnicking) Date: 1842 to go on a picnic ; eat in picnic fashion • picnicker noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 an outing or excursion including a packed meal eaten out of doors. 2 any meal eaten out of doors or without preparation, tables, chairs, etc. 3 (usu. with neg.) colloq. something agreeable or easily accomplished etc. (it was no picnic organizing the meeting). --v.intr. (picnicked, picnicking) take part in a picnic. Derivatives: picnicker n. picnicky adj. colloq. Etymology: F pique-nique, of unkn. orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Picnic Pic"nic, n. [Cf. F. piquenique. See Pick, v., and cf. Knickknack.] Formerly, an entertainment at which each person contributed some dish to a common table; now, an excursion or pleasure party in which the members partake of a collation or repast (usually in the open air, and from food carried by themselves).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Picnic Pic"nic, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Picnicked; p. pr. & vb. n. Picnicking.] To go on a picnic, or pleasure excursion; to eat in public fashion.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(picnics, picnicking, picnicked) 1. When people have a picnic, they eat a meal out of doors, usually in a field or a forest, or at the beach. We're going on a picnic tomorrow... We'll take a picnic lunch. N-COUNT 2. When people picnic somewhere, they have a picnic. Afterwards, we picnicked on the riverbank. ...such a perfect day for picnicking. VERB: V, V-ing • picnicker (picnickers) ...fires started by careless picnickers. N-COUNT 3. If you say that an experience, task, or activity is no picnic, you mean that it is quite difficult or unpleasant. (INFORMAL) Emigrating is no picnic. PHRASE: V inflects

Moby Thesaurus

Cadmean victory, KO, Mardi Gras, Pyrrhic victory, Saturnalia, TV dinner, action, agonizing, agony, alfresco meal, arduous, ascendancy, ball, banquet, barbecue, big time, blowout, board, break bread with, breakfast, breeze, brunch, buffet supper, carnival, championship, cinch, clambake, coffee break, conquest, cook out, cookout, difficult, dine, dine out, diner, dinner, disagreeable, do, duck, easy target, easy thing, easy victory, eat out, elevenses, fair, feast, festival, festive occasion, festivity, fete, field day, fiesta, fish fry, fun, fun and games, funmaking, gala, gala affair, gala day, game, garden party, good time, grand slam, great doings, great fun, high jinks, high old time, high tea, high time, hot luncheon, jamboree, kermis, knockout, landslide, landslide victory, laughs, lead-pipe cinch, lovely time, lunch, luncheon, mash, mastery, meat breakfast, mess with, misfortune, moral victory, no picnic, painful, party, petit dejeuner, pie, piece of cake, play, pleasant time, pushover, rough, runaway victory, setup, sinecure, sitting duck, snap, sport, subdual, subduing, success, sup, supper, tea, tea break, teatime, tiffin, torture, torturous, total victory, tough, triumph, velvet, victory, walkaway, walkover, waygoose, wayzgoose, wiener roast, wienie roast, win, winning, winning streak