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A.Word.A.Day--piker

Pronunciation Sound Clip RealAudio

This week's theme: Words to describe people.

piker (PY-kur) noun

A stingy person, a cautious gambler, or one who does things in a small way.

[Of uncertain origin, possibly from Middle English pike (to leave).]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"The guy who put a lit firecracker between his buttocks is a piker compared to the Russian soldiers who took a smoke break in an ammunition warehouse -- the explosions went on for a week." Colette Bancroft; Smarty Pants; St. Petersburg Times (Florida); Dec 9, 2007.

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God must have loved the people in power, for he made them so much like their own image of him. -Kenneth Patchen, poet and novelist (1911-1972)

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