Pick
Pick (pik) , transitive verb
[Old English picken, pikken, to prick, peck; akin to Icelandic pikka, Swedish picka, Danish pikke, Dutch pikken, German picken, French piquer, Welsh pigo. Compare Peck, v., Pike, Pitch to throw.]
1.
To throw; to pitch. [Obsolete]
As high as I could pick my lance.
2.
To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.
3.
To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
4.
To open (a lock) as by a wire.
5.
To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck; to gather, as fruit from a tree, flowers from the stalk, feathers from a fowl, etc.
6.
To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth; as, to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket.
Did you pick Master Slender's purse?
He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems
With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
7.
To choose; to select; to separate as choice or desirable; to cull; as, to pick one's company; to pick one's way; -- often with out.
One man picked out of ten thousand.
8.
To take up; esp., to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together; as, to pick rags; -- often with up; as, to pick up a ball or stones; to pick up information.
9.
To trim. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
Collocations (8)
To pick at , to tease or vex by pertinacious annoyance.
To pick a bone with , See under Bone.
To pick a thank , to curry favor. [Obsolete] — Robynson (More's Utopia)
To pick off , (a) To pluck; to remove by picking (b) To shoot or bring down, one by one; as, sharpshooters pick off the enemy.
To pick out , (a) To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors (b) To select from a number or quantity.
To pick to pieces , to pull apart piece by piece; hence [Colloq.], to analyze; esp., to criticize in detail.
To pick a quarrel , to give occasion of quarrel intentionally.
To pick up , (a) To take up, as with the fingers (b) To get by repeated efforts; to gather here and there; as, to pick up a livelihood; to pick up news.
Pick , intransitive verb
1.
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?
2.
To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
3.
To steal; to pilfer.
To keep my hands from picking and stealing.
Collocations (1)
To pick up , to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. [Colloquial United States]
Pick , noun
[French pic a pickax, a pick. See Pick, and compare Pike.]
1.
A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
2.
(Mining & Mechanics) A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, -- used for digging into the ground by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
3.
A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler. [Obsolete]
Take down my buckler... and grind the pick on 't.
4.
Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick; in cat breeding, the owner of a stud gets the pick of the litter.
France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
5.
That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
6.
(Printing) A particle of ink or paper imbedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and occasioning a spot on a printed sheet. — MacKellar
7.
(Painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
8.
(Weaving) The blow which drives the shuttle, -- the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute;
(Weaving) a weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch.
Collocations (2)
Pick dressing (Architecture) , in cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions.
Pick hammer , a pick with one end sharp and the other blunt, used by miners.