Pick /(pĭk)/

Pick

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Picked; p. pr. & vb. n. Picking

  1. To throw; to pitch. [Obs.]
    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.
  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. [Obs.]

Phrases & Compounds
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.
To pick off
To pluck; to remove by picking
To pick out
To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors
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
To take up, as with the fingers

Pick

v. i.
  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.

Phrases & Compounds
To pick up
to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business.

Pick

n.
  1. A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
  2. 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 ino the ground by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones. (Mining & Mech.)
  3. A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler. [Obs.]
  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.
    — Ld. Lytton.
  5. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
  6. 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. (Print.)
  7. That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture. (Painting)
  8. The blow which drives the shuttle, -- the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; (Weaving)

Phrases & Compounds
Pick dressing
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.