(n.) The fourth part of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts; as, a peck of wheat.
(n.) A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
(v.) To strike with the beak; to thrust the beak into; as, a bird pecks a tree.
(v.) Hence: To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument; especially, to strike, pick, etc., with repeated quick movements.
(v.) To seize and pick up with the beak, or as with the beak; to bite; to eat; -- often with up.
(v.) To make, by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument; as, to peck a hole in a tree.
(v. i.) To make strokes with the beak, or with a pointed instrument.
(v. i.) To pick up food with the beak; hence, to eat.
(n.) A quick, sharp stroke, as with the beak of a bird or a pointed instrument.
Example Sentences:
(1) The first was a passive avoidance task in which the chicks were allowed to peck at a green training stimulus (a small light-emitting diode, LED) coated in the bitter liquid, methylanthranilate, giving rise to a strong disgust response and consequent avoidance of the green stimulus.
(2) The rate of key pecking in a component was negatively related to the proportion of reinforcers from the alternative (variable-time) source.
(3) No pigeon attacked the target; one pecked the shockplug on its back.
(4) This 'object' function is the summation of the food uptake by one second of pecking and one second of filter feeding.
(5) So strong is this image of Peck that his few honourable attempts at comedy, and his less successful portrayals of the baddie, are often forgotten.
(6) Hens socially dominant in three bird pens had higher liver fat accumulation than hens lower on the peck order but liver fat accumulation for the dominant hens still averaged less than hens housed either two or one per cage.
(7) He tweeted on Wednesday: “I did not pull out of presenting the Rory Peck Awards - they dropped me.” The awards were set up in 1995 in memory of freelance cameraman Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1993.
(8) Pigeons were trained to peck a key on a multi FR30-FI3' schedule.
(9) Five pigeons pecked for food reinforcers on a concurrent variable-interval one-minute, variable-interval four-minute schedule.
(10) Day-old chicks peck when offered a bright bead; if the bead is coated with the bitter-tasting methylanthranilate (M) they avoid it thereafter.
(11) "You also said we haven't ended up with local radio at the bottom of the pecking order.
(12) The drug initially produced a marked decrease in aggressive behavior but had little or no effect on key pecking.
(13) The results showed that pigeons alternate when frequency-dependent selection is applied to single pecks because alternation is an easy-to-learn stable pattern that satisfies the frequency-dependent condition.
(14) At 6ft 3in tall, the lanky Peck was a pillar of moral rectitude standing up for decency and tolerance.
(15) The effects of three amphetamine analogs were assessed in pigeons key pecking under a multiple 3-min fixed-interval (FI), 30 response fixed-ratio (FR) schedule of food presentation.
(16) Subsequently, over three phases, additions were made during the random-interval 1-minute component as follows: pecks during the component occasionally were punished by timeout presentation (Phase 1), timeouts were presented independently of responding during the component (Phase 2), pecks during the component occasionally were punished by electric-shock presentation (Phase 3).
(17) Trade ministers, much lower down the pecking order, are more sanguine.
(18) Genetic stock by age and beak treatment by age interactions were present for hen-housed production and egg mass, and the interactions appeared to result primarily from increased mortality from cannibalistic pecking with increased age.
(19) In the swinging 1960s, Peck's sober style seemed a little out of place, though he appeared in a couple of flashy Hitchcockian thrillers, Mirage (1965) and Arabesque (1966), and adapted to the new Hollywood as best he could, looking rather bothered as the father of a demon in The Omen (1976).
(20) Pigeons' pecks were conditioned with food reinforcement.
Penk
Definition:
(n.) A minnow. See Pink, n., 4.
Example Sentences:
(1) To study the role of the PENK gene in opioid related processes, an antisense sequence of PENK gene was subcloned into pSVL SV 40 late promoter expression vector and stably transfected into NG 108-15 cells, which contain opioid receptors.
(2) From steady-state kinetics half-life estimates of 9.6 h for PPenk mRNA and 14.7 h for Penk peptide were obtained.
(3) The Penk Combat Exposure scale did not separate the groups.
(4) "I was half expecting to see him on Songs of Praise," Penk added.
(5) Clinical observations and empirical evidence suggest that, among Vietnam combat veterans, Blacks are more maladjusted than Whites (e.g., Parsons, 1985; Penk et al., 1985).
(6) Penk, who now owns the Oldham-based local radio station 96.2 Revolution, said he was "appalled" at the "sheer scale of this unfair cross-promotion".
(7) "In these hard times it is difficult enough for the large, quasi-national commercial radio brands to compete with such unfair 'free' publicity," said Penk.
(8) The Penk Combat Intensity scale, which was correlated highly with the Keane scale, differentiated the PTSD-positive patients from both the normals and the PTSD-negative patients, but with less differentiating power (omega 2'S = .07 and .08).
(9) Facebook Twitter Pinterest The former Capital and Virgin Radio DJ Steve Penk has written to the BBC Trust to complain about the "excessive" and "gratuitous" cross-promotion of Chris Evans's new Radio 2 breakfast show on television.
(10) An increase in PENK mRNA levels has been also observed in cultures treated with 8-Br-cAMP, phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA), or dexamethasone.
(11) Thus, activation of Penk gene expression upon neurotransmitter challenge is suggested to be due to an enhanced transcriptional activity of the gene mediated by de novo synthesized protein (-like) factors.
(12) We suggest that both the increased PENK message and the unchanged levels of free Met-enkephalin may be the result of compensatory mechanisms induced by translational inhibition by antisense, although the underlying processes remain to be determined.
(13) Penk was also critical of what he called the "placement" of Evans on BBC TV shows including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the One Show and the Andrew Marr Show.
(14) Unilateral adrenal denervation resulted in a rapid decrease in PPenk mRNA levels of 54% after 2 days, and by 11 days 90% of Penk mRNA had disappeared.
(15) Penk claimed the Evans trail broke the BBC Trust's own policy on cross-promotion.
(16) However, incubation of the cultures with the opioid agonist etorphine or the antagonist naltrexone did not alter PENK gene expression, suggesting that there is not feedback control of opioids on PENK biosynthesis in these cells.
(17) In this study we identified the potential sites of synthesis by localizing the mRNA coding for PENK in the rat pituitary gland using in situ hybridization histochemistry.
(18) Depolarization with potassium chloride (KCl) or veratridine increases the expression of PENK mRNA in a time-dependent fashion, with a maximal increase of sixfold.
(19) The proenkephalin A (PENK) gene codes for several opioid peptides, including Met-enkephalin, an endogenous ligand of opioid receptors.
(20) After an initial lag phase (with no major alterations) Penk mRNA increased markedly between 6 and 12 h followed by a slower, steady increase up to 48 h. The nicotinic receptor antagonist tubocurarine (4 x 10(-7) M) and the Ca2+ channel blocker D600 (10(-5) M) prevent the subsequent rise of Penk mRNA levels after challenge with nicotine, when given within the lag phase (0-6 h), suggesting the need of continuous receptor occupation and Ca2+ entry for induction of gene expression.