# pickup
## English
### Alternative forms

* pick-up, pick up

### Etymology

From pick +‎ up.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

pickup (countable and uncountable, plural pickups)
* An electronic device for detecting sound, vibration, etc., such as one fitted to an electric guitar or record player.
** In a record player, an electromagnetic component that converts the needle vibrations into an electrical signal.
    Synonym: phono cartridge
** Electromagnetic coil receiver of metal string oscillations.
** The reception of sound, etc. by such a device.
    This microphone has very weak pickup.
* (US, Canada) Ellipsis of pickup truck.
** 2009, Chinle Miller, Desert Rats: Adventures in the American Outback, page 35:Franklin is beside himself, revving up the engine in the pickup.
* (usually attributive) Impromptu or ad hoc, especially of sports games and teams made up of randomly selected players.
    Rather than join a basketball league, James decided to play pickup.
    At lunch we had a game of pickup hockey.
** 2010, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Peter Carey: A Literary Companion, page 100:Trevor, like an Aussie outbacker, eats snacks and a pickup meal of bread, cantaloupe, olives, mangoes, and melon.
* An instance of approaching someone and engaging in romantic flirtation and courting with the intent to pursue romance, a date, or a sexual encounter.
    Coordinate terms: pick-up line, pick-up joint, pickup artist
    Hey, thanks for the drink, but if this is a pickup, I'm not interested.
* A person successfully approached in this manner for romance or sex.
** 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 4:"Good Lord! I'm not stopping you from taking on all the pick-ups that come your way."
** 1984, Steven Carter, What every man should know about the "new woman": a survival guide:But what about the women who still go to bars — are they completely unaffected by these negative connotations? Hardly. No woman wants to think of herself as being an easy pick-up […]
** 2002, James A. Abrahamson, Confessions of a Diplomatic Pouch Clerk, page 192:Audball's latest pickup didn't seem to care where they were, or anything at all about alimony, palimony, or child support […]
* (sports) In various games, the fielding or hitting of a ball just after it strikes the ground.
** 2011 June 28, David Ornstein, “Wimbledon 2011: Victoria Azarenka beats Tamira Paszek in quarters”, in BBC Sport‎:The fourth seed was dominating her 20-year-old opponent with a series of stinging groundstrokes and athletic drive-volleys, striking again in game five when Paszek flicked a forehand pick-up into the tramlines.
* (video games) An item that can be picked up by the player, conferring some benefit or effect; a power-up.
** 1991, James Leach, Turrican II (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 69
    Every step of the way you come across absolutely loads of aliens, pick-ups and new and weird obstacles to overcome.
** 2002, Acclaim Entertainment, Turok Evolution: The official strategy guide, page 73:Enter the graveyard if you want pick-ups, otherwise make a left under the archways to progress. When the pathway ends, you'll see two blocked-off tunnels and a switch between them.
* (US, Canada, politics) The act of a challenging party or candidate winning an electoral district held by an incumbent party or candidate.
    Coordinate term: gain
    The returns from the election show Apple Party candidate Jane Doe has made a pickup in the district of City West defeating Orange Party Incumbent Joe Smith
* The act of answering a telephone.
** 2006, Georgina Spelvin, The Devil Made Me Do It, Little Red Hen Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 224:That's why the phone at the theater's on automatic pickup.
* (film) A relatively minor shot filmed or recorded after the fact to augment previous footage.
* The act of collecting and taking away something or someone, usually in a vehicle.
** 2020 March 18, Cindy Gonzalez, “Blackstone District starts emergency fund to aid the neighborhood's bar, restaurant servers”, in Omaha World-Herald‎:Owner Philip Schaffart said a precoronavirus Tuesday typically brought in $2,500 in revenue. This past Tuesday, he said, that amount dwindled to $300 as his place was open only for pickup and delivery.
* (uncountable) A time during which passengers, such as school children, are picked up.
** 2021 February 1, Living in Brisbane, Brisbane, page 1:These signs are friendly reminders for road users to slow down during drop-off and pick-up.
* (uncountable) The rate at which a motor vehicle picks up speed.
** 1946, Henry Robinson Luce, Fortune, volume 34, page 186:The Willys-Overland won't be the fastest car on the road or have the best pickup, but it will have a top speed of eighty miles per hour, and its makers are confident that no car in its class will excel it in economy of fuel and upkeep.
** 1955, Popular Mechanics, volume 104, number 3, page 70:The more highly vaporized the mixture your carburetor delivers, the more power you get, which means higher speed, better pickup, smoother idling, more miles per gallon.
* (uncountable) The condition of being picked up, or taken up; adoption by some entity.
** 1987, Chuck Jordan, Jordan Family Descendents, page 302:Newsweek gave it a big write-up, as did many trade journals, including, Editor and Publisher. And our articles get pickup as far west as the Tombstone Epitaph in Arizona.
** 2018, Magda Konieczna, Journalism Without Profit: Making News when the Market Fails, page 189:Back then CPI staff demonstrated a reflexivity common to public relations, reflected for instance in Lewis's acknowledgment of the fact that the novelty factor might lead to more pickup.

#### Derived terms

* 52-card pickup
* 52 pickup
* bind on pickup
* humbucking pickup
* negative pickup
* pickup community
* pickup cover
* pickup line
* TV pickup

#### Descendants

* Chinese:
    → Mandarin: 皮卡 (píkǎ)
* → Finnish: pick-up
* → French: pick-up, pickup
* → German: Pickup
* → Indonesian: pikap
* → Japanese: ピックアップ (pikkuappu)
* → Khmer: ភីកអាប់ (pʰiik’ap), ពីកឺប (piikəɨp)
* → Korean: 픽업 (pigeop)
* → Portuguese: pickup, pick-up, picape (Brazil)
* → Russian: пика́п (pikáp)
* → Spanish: pickup, picop
* → Thai: ปิคอัพ (bpìk-àp)
* → Turkish: pikap
* → Uyghur: پىكاپ (pikap)

#### Translations
### Verb

pickup
* Misspelling of pick up.

## Danish
### Noun

pickup c (singular definite pickuppen, plural indefinite pickupper)
* pickup truck

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “pickup” in Den Danske Ordbog

## Portuguese
### Alternative forms

* pick-up, picape (Brazil)

### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English pickup.

### Pronunciation

* (Portugal) IPA: /piˈkɐ.pɨ/

### Noun

pickup f (plural pickups)
* pickup truck (truck with an open cargo bed)

## Spanish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English pickup.

### Noun

pickup m or f same meaning (plural pickups)
* pickup (vehicle)

#### Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English pickup.

### Noun

pickup c
* a pickup truck
* a pickup (on an electric guitar)
* a pickup (on an (older) record player (phonograph))
    Synonym: nålmikrofon
* a pickup baler (piece of farming machinery)

#### Usage notes

See the usage notes for bil.

#### See also

* flak (“cargo bed”)

### Further reading

* pickup in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* pickup in Svensk ordbok (SO)