piocher
French, verb\pjɔ.ʃe\
piocher is spelled P-I-O-C-H-E-R (7 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written French, the 33,599th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Piocher is a French verb meaning “to use a pickaxe” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Fouir, remuer avec une pioche”.
What does piocher mean in English?
verb
- 1
to use a pickaxe
- 2
to cram, to swot, to grind (e.g., for an exam)
- 3
to slog away, drudge (to work very hard)
- 4
to pick, choose, select from a set of options
- 5
to draw from the deck
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Fouir, remuer avec une pioche. 2. Remuer avec une pioche. 3. Creuser le sol comme avec une pioche. 4. Travailler avec ardeur, avec assiduité ; bûcher.
verb: 1. En parlant d'un cheval, lever fortement les pattes avant en courant.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of piocher
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- piochant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- pioché participle past
- pioche first-person indicative present
- pioches indicative present second-person
- piochons first-person indicative plural
- piochez indicative plural present
- piochent indicative plural present
- piochais first-person imperfect indicative
- piochait imperfect indicative singular
- piochions first-person imperfect indicative
- piochiez imperfect indicative plural
- piochaient imperfect indicative plural
- piochai first-person historic indicative
- piochas historic indicative past
- piocha historic indicative past
- piochâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce piocher?
- \pjɔ.ʃe\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to piocher
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is piocher in French?
piocher appears about once in every 1 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).