pick
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪk/
ipa: [pʰɪk]
homophone: pic
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: picks
Etymology: 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”)).
Senses: glosses: A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
examples: text: It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.
ref: 2021 December 24, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 41, column 2:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: An anchor.
glosses: A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
glosses: A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
glosses: A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
examples: text: Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.
ref: c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
examples: text: France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
ref: 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?:
glosses: A choice; ability to choose.
glosses: That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
examples: text: ‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’
ref: 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 69:
text: 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.
ref: 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 232:
glosses: Pasture; feed, for animals.
topics: ball-games
basketball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A screen.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
topics: American-football
ball-games
football
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An interception.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A good defensive play by an infielder.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A pickoff.
examples: text: If it be in the smallest degree gritty, it clogs the form, and consequently produces a thick and imperfect impression; no pains should, therefore, be spared to render it perfectly smooth; it may then be made to work as clear and free from picks
ref: c. 1866, Thomas MacKellar, The American Printer:
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
topics: art
arts
qualifier: painting
glosses: That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
examples: text: so many picks to an inch
topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
weaving
glosses: The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.
Derived terms: 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
pick of the crop
pick of the litter
pick packer
picks and shovels
pick scrape
pick six
pick slide
pick stitch
sandwich pick
take one's pick
toe pick
toothpick
tramp-pick
water pick
worm pick