Search results
- Dictionarypecking order
noun
- 1. a hierarchy of status seen among members of a group of people or animals, originally as observed among hens: "the luxurious office accentuated the manager's position in the pecking order"
Powered by Oxford Dictionaries
The meaning of PECKING ORDER is the basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation and submits to pecking by one of higher rank; broadly : a dominance hierarchy in a group of social animals.
PECKING ORDER definition: 1. an informal social system in which some people or groups know they are more or less important…. Learn more.
an informal social system in which some people or groups know they are more or less important than others: There's a clearly established pecking order in this office. He started as a clerk but gradually rose in the pecking order. Compare. power structure. hierarchy. See also. order noun (ARRANGEMENT) SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.
1. A hierarchy among a group, as of people, classes, or nations: "The astronauts had developed a pecking order that was military in its rigidity" (Tom Wolfe). 2. The social hierarchy in a flock of domestic fowl in which each bird pecks subordinate birds and submits to being pecked by dominant birds.
A hierarchy within a social group or community, in which those members at the top assume positions of leadership, authority, and power. The expression originated from a description of social behavior among chickens, which attack each other by pecking to establish dominance. Discover More.
: the way in which people or things in a group or organization are placed in a series of levels with different importance or status. As an assistant manager, he was pretty low in the company's pecking order. the pecking order of Washington politics.
US. 1. a hierarchy among birds, as a flock of hens, based on aggressive pecking in which the most dominant bird pecks all others, the second most dominant bird pecks all others except the most dominant, etc. 2. social organization in which status is determined by aggressive awareness of rank, income, etc. Also peck order.
The usually informal hierarchy of authority or command, often partial or approximate, as determined by the especially natural propensity for domination of different members of a specific group over each other, such as older brothers and sisters over their younger siblings. Wiktionary. Synonyms: power-structure. hierarchy.
noun. 1. Also called: peck order. a natural hierarchy in a group of gregarious birds, such as domestic fowl. 2. any hierarchical order, as among people in a particular group. Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. Examples of 'peck order' in a sentence. peck order.
pecking order meaning, definition, what is pecking order: a social system within a group of people...: Learn more.
