Noun

(en noun)

A person who manages, administers or organizes a collection, either independently or employed by a museum, library, archive or zoo.

One appointed to act as guardian of the estate of a person not legally competent to manage it, or of an absentee; a trustee.

Noun

(en noun)

A stake driven into the ground.

(historical) A type of punishment by which an offender had to rest his or her entire body weight on the top of a small stake.

A tool in mountaineering that is driven into the snow and used as an anchor or to arrest falls.

(military) Soldiers or troops placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance. It can also refer to any unit (for example, an aircraft or ship) performing a similar function.

* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 59:

So confident was he that he ignored the warning of his two British advisers to post pickets to watch the river, and even withdrew those they had placed there.

A sentry. Can be used figuratively.

* {{quote-book, year=1907, author=

, chapter=26, title= The Dust of Conflict , passage=Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket , and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them.}}

A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc. during a strike (usually in plural); also the protest itself.

* , chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}

(card games) The card game piquet.