picking

A gathering to pick fruit.

Noun

  1. A gathering to pick fruit.
    • We went to a strawberry picking last June.
  2. Items remaining after others have selected the best; scraps, as of food.
    • Gilbert wandered through . . .the haunts of ravenous dogs and homeless cats that kept themselves alive on the choice pickings of the city's garbage. - 1899, F. Marion Crawford, chapter 9, in Via Crucis:
  3. Income or other gains, especially if obtained in an unscrupulous or objectionable manner.
    • easy pickings, rich pickings
    • He liked the pickings which the job brought him much better than the job itself. - 1919, Anthony Hope, chapter 11, in The Secret of the Tower:
  4. Something picked or pulled out.
    • The schoolboy flicked his nose pickings across the classroom.
  5. The act of making a choice; selection.
  6. The final finishing of woven fabrics by removing burs, etc.
  7. The removal of defects from electrotype plates.
  8. Dabbing in stoneworking.

Forms

pickings

Synonyms

leftovers booty

Derived

batch picking berrypicking brain-picking case picking chronic skin-picking cluster picking cotton-picking digital picking discrete picking easy pickings electronic picking e-picking flowerpicking garbage picking individual item picking in-store picking in the picking litter picking mobile scanner picking multi-batch picking multi-order picking nit-picking nitpicking nutpicking

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of pick