pick

A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.

Noun

  1. A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
  2. An anchor.
    • It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night. - 2021 December 5, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 41, column 2:
  3. A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
  4. A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
  5. A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
  6. A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
  7. A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
    • Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't. - c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […],...
  8. A choice; ability to choose.
    • France and Russia have the pick of our stables. - 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?:
  9. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
  10. Pasture; feed, for animals.
    • ‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’ - 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 69:
    • The judicious use of fire could have protected valuable nut trees, promoted the growth and seeding of grass and, if practised at a distance from their camps, even attracted herbivores to the sweet young pick. - 2018,...
  11. A screen.
  12. An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.

Origin

From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck. Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)). Compare also German Low German puken (“to pick out, rip out, pull away, extract”).

Forms

picks

Derived

Afro pick antipick captain's pick downpick earpick fingerpick first pick floss pick guitar pick have one's pick hoof pick lock pick mill pick mispick nutpick pickaxe pick dressing pickguard pick gun pick hammer pickle picklist pickman pick of the crop

Verb

  1. To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
    • Don't pick at that scab.
    • He picked his nose.
  2. To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.
    • It's time to pick the tomatoes.
  3. To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
    • She picked flowers in the meadow.
    • to pick feathers from a fowl
  4. To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
    • to pick rags
  5. To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
    • to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket
    • Did you pick Master Slender's purse? - c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet. - 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
  6. To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
    • I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
  7. To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
  8. To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.
    • He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
  9. To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
    • He picked a tune on his banjo.
  10. To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
    • The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks. - 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
  11. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
    • Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore? - 1693, John Dryden, Third Satire of Persius:
  12. To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
    • I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs.

Forms

picks picking picked no-table-tags glossary pick pickest pickedst picketh -

Related

mattock

Derived

a bone to pick autopick bone to pick cherry-pick crow to pick downpick e-pick fingerpick hand-picked hand-pick handpick have a bone to pick know how to pick 'em mispick nitpick nose-pick nose-picking nutpick outpick pickability pickable pick a fight pick a hole in someone's coat pick a lane