half-peck

[ haf-pek, hahf- ]

noun

1. a unit of dry measure equal to 4 quarts (4.4 liters).

Word History and Origins

Origin of half-peck¹

First recorded in 1745–55

Example Sentences

If they stopped at the farm’s roadside stand for a half-peck of pre-picked apples, however, they’d get an even better deal: $1.25 a pound.

From Wall Street Journal

It was not a Lubberland, nor a Pays de Cocagne, where the streets were paved with half-peck loaves, and the houses tiled with pancakes, and where the fowls flew about ready roasted, crying Come eat me!

From Project Gutenberg

She began her preparations for a journey with a rejoicing spirit, and by the time the men arose, her gallon tin bucket of butter, and half-peck basket of eggs were weighed, counted, and safely packed under the seat of the rickety "no-topped" buggy that occupied the leaky shed,—formerly the kitchen of the house; her kitchen that shone with cleanliness was swept and dusted, and a hot breakfast of coffee, biscuit, and fried slices of a shoulder of fresh pork, smoked on the green-figured oil-cloth.

From Project Gutenberg

This estimate is based on the low yield of a half-peck of fruit to each vine at 25 cents per basket.

From Project Gutenberg

Next morning I put down my seed—of potatoes a half-kischen, cut in quarters where the eyes were many and also of barley and oats half a peck each, keeping back my other half-peck lest the ground were barren, or the weather against it, or the year too far worn for such-like crops.

From Project Gutenberg