Word.ws English Dictionary

piqued

/piːkt/

piqued is the simple past and past participle of pique.

Meaning of pique

Verb

pique (third-person singular simple present piques, present participle piquing, simple past and past participle piqued)

  1. (transitive) To wound the pride of (someone); to excite to anger; to irritate, to offend.
    • The Dev'l was piqu'd, ſuch ſaintſhip to behold, / And long'd to tempt him like good Job of old: / But Satan now is wiſer than of yore, / And tempts by making rich, not making poor.1733 (indicated as 1732), [Alexander] Pope, Of the Use of Riches, an Epistle to the Right Honourable Allen Lord Bathurst, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 18
  2. (transitive) To excite (someone) to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate (an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest).
    • I believe this will pique your interest.
    Synonyms:
    excite, stimulate
  3. (reflexive, transitive) To pride (oneself) on something.
    • [G]ood Nature may be ſetled in them [children] into a Habit, and they may take pleaſure and pique themſelves in being kind, liberal, and civil to others.1693, [John Locke], “§105”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 123
  4. (obsolete, reflexive, transitive) To excite or stimulate (oneself).
  5. (intransitive) To take pride in.
  6. (intransitive) To excite to action, especially by causing jealousy, resentment, etc.; also, to stimulate an emotion or feeling, especially curiosity or interest.
    • Piqu'd by Protogenes's Fame, / From Co to Rhodes, Apelles came; / To ſee a Rival and a Friend, / Prepar'd to Cenſure, or Commend, […]1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Protogenes and Apelles”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 292

See all 15 meanings of pique

Adjective

piqued (comparative more piqued, superlative most piqued)

  1. Annoyed, usually mildly and temporarily, especially by an offense to one's pride or honor.
    Synonyms:
    irritated, nettled, vexed

Synonyms of piqued

Forms of piqued

comparativemore piqued
superlativemost piqued

Words formed from piqued

Words that rhyme with piqued

Questions about piqued

What does piqued mean?
Piqued means annoyed, usually mildly and temporarily, especially by an offense to one's pride or honor.
What is piqued the simple past and past participle of?
Piqued is the simple past and past participle of pique.
What part of speech is piqued?
Piqued is an adjective.
How do you pronounce piqued?
Piqued is pronounced /piːkt/.

Words near piqued in the dictionary

  1. piquantly
  2. piquantness
  3. pique
  4. pique-devant
  5. pique-devants
  6. piqued
  7. piqueer
  8. piqueered
  9. piqueerer
  10. piqueerers
  11. piqueering

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: piqued (page history and authors); pique (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-piqued.wav.

Cite this entry: “piqued.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piqued. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.