How to Use peck at in a Sentence
peck at
verb-
Warwick shrugged and pecked at his laptop.
—
Christopher Borrelli,
Chicago Tribune,
21 Jan. 2026
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People are talking about the storm while the gulls gorge on bread and peck at chicken bones.
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Deborah Levy,
Harpers Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
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When things go wrong, that’s when all the rats start to come out and try to peck at you and all that other stuff.
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Jordan McPherson,
Miami Herald,
2 Nov. 2025
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The bird might also be pecking at small insects that could be around the window frame.
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Joan Morris,
Mercury News,
16 Feb. 2026
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What glitters can make anyone want to peck at it, but what’s solid can be a foundation to build upon.
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Magi Helena,
Dallas Morning News,
16 Jan. 2026
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To keep birds out of your fruit trees and prevent them from pecking at your crop, hang spiral reflective strips from the branches.
—
Joshua Siskin,
Oc Register,
30 Jan. 2026
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Dogs sniff each other’s rears, African elephants swing their trunks, and songbirds peck at one another’s feathers.
—
Shayla Love,
New Yorker,
4 Feb. 2026
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Whether the creature is pecking at the ground or slumped over, unable to hold up the weight of its own body, all its gestures amount to Sisyphean false starts.
—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
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In graduate school, my experimental archaeology professor told a student to create a door socket – the hole in a door frame that a bolt slides into – in a slab of sandstone by pecking at it with a rounded stone.
—
R. Alexander Bentley,
The Conversation,
26 Feb. 2026
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'peck at.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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