Word: pick Part of Speech: verb 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”)). Compare also German Low German puken (“to pick out, rip out, pull away, extract”). Pronunciation: /pɪk/, [pʰɪk] 1. To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails. Example: Don't pick at that scab. Example: 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. Example: It's time to pick the tomatoes. 3. To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck. Example: She picked flowers in the meadow. Example: to pick feathers from a fowl 4. To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together. Example: to pick rags 5. To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth. Example: to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket Example: Did you pick Master Slender's purse? 6. To decide upon, from a set of options; to select. Example: I'll pick the one with the nicest name. Example: She had to pick her steps to avoid the flutters of the quivering, bleeding bodies. 7. To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises. Labels: transitive 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. Example: 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. Example: He picked a tune on his banjo. 10. To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc. Example: The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks. 11. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. Example: Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore? 12. To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care. Example: I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs. 13. To steal; to pilfer. Example: to keep my hands from picking and stealing 14. To throw; to pitch. Labels: obsolete Example: as high as I could pick my lance 15. 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. Labels: dated, transitive 16. To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points. Labels: ambitransitive Example: to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc. Example: Naphtha lamps shed a weird light over a busy scene, for the work was being continued night and day. A score or so of sturdy navvies were shovelling and picking along the track. 17. To screen. 18. To intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player. Labels: informal Example: The pass was almost picked, but the tight end was able to hold on.