Picket

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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.