pick
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: American-football
art
arts
ball-games
baseball
basketball
business
cricket
entertainment
football
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
manufacturing
media
music
nautical
printing
publishing
sports
textiles
transport
weaving
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: picks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: picks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: picking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: pick
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: pick
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: pick
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: pickest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: pickedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: picks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: picketh
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: pick
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: pick
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: pick
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: picking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: picked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
pos: noun
gloss: An anchor.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.
gloss: A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
pos: noun
gloss: A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
pos: noun
gloss: A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
pos: noun
gloss: A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
pos: noun
gloss: A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.
gloss: A choice; ability to choose.
pos: noun
examples: France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
gloss: That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
pos: noun
gloss: Pasture; feed, for animals.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
examples: ‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’
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.
gloss: A screen.
pos: noun
gloss: An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
pos: noun
gloss: An interception.
pos: noun
gloss: A good defensive play by an infielder.
pos: noun
gloss: A pickoff.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: 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
gloss: That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: so many picks to an inch
Leaving a tail 2 yd long for hemstitching, weave 3 picks of plain weave and use the tail to hemstitch in groups of 8 warp ends. Weave 3 more picks of plain weave, then begin the pattern treadling following the draft in Figure 2, beginning with the border.
gloss: To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
pos: verb
examples: Don't pick at that scab.
He picked his nose.
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
examples: It's time to pick the tomatoes.
gloss: To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
pos: verb
examples: She picked flowers in the meadow.
to pick feathers from a fowl
gloss: To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
pos: verb
examples: to pick rags
gloss: To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
pos: verb
examples: to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket
Did you pick Master Slender's purse?
He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
He was charged with attempting to pick a pocket, and they found a silver snuff-box on him,--his own, my dear, his own, for he took snuff himself, and was very fond of it.
For the pocket in which Erskine kept this key was not the kind of pocket that Watt could pick. For it was no ordinary pocket, no, but a secret one, sewn on to the front of Erskine's underhose.
gloss: To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
pos: verb
examples: I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
gloss: To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
examples: He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
gloss: To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
pos: verb
examples: He picked a tune on his banjo.
gloss: To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
pos: verb
examples: The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.
gloss: To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
pos: verb
examples: Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?
gloss: To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
pos: verb
examples: I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs.
gloss: To steal; to pilfer.
pos: verb
examples: to keep my hands from picking and stealing
gloss: To throw; to pitch.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: as high as I could pick my lance
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: dated
transitive
gloss: To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
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.
gloss: To screen.
pos: verb
gloss: To intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player.
pos: verb
tags: informal
examples: The pass was almost picked, but the tight end was able to hold on.
Related words: mattock
Derived words: 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
pick of the litter
pick packer
picks and shovels
pick scrape
pick six
pick slide
picksman
pick stitch
sandwich pick
sleeper pick
take one's pick
thumbpick
toe pick
toothpick
tramp-pick
water pick
worm pick
a bone to pick
autopick
bone to pick
cherry-pick
crow to pick
e-pick
hand-picked
hand-pick
handpick
have a bone to pick
know how to pick 'em
nitpick
nose-pick
nose-picking
outpick
pickability
pickable
pick a fight
pick a hole in someone's coat
pick a lane
pick and choose
pick and pack
pick and pass
pick and place
pick and pop
pick and roll
pick-and-sort
pick apart
pick a quarrel
pick at
pick-at-will
pick away at
pick bids off the wall
pick-by-order
pick-by-vision
pick-by-voice
pickcheese
pick corners
pick 'em
picker
pick-fault
pick fault
pickfest
pick fights
pick flowers
pick from a hat
pick gooseberry
pick holes
pickin' and grinnin'
pick-me
pick-me boy
pick-me girl
pickmire
pick 'n' mix
pick oakum
pick off
pick on
pick one's battles
pick one's nose
pick one's way
pick out
pick out of a hat
pick over
pickpenny
pickpocket
pickproof
pickpurse
pick-quarrel
pick quarrels
pick sides
pick somebody's brain
pick someone's brain
pick someone's brains
pick the wrong horse
pick through
pick-to-belt
pick-to-box
pick-to-cart
pick-to-carton
pick-to-light
pick-to-order
picktooth
pick-to-tote
pick-to-voice
pickup
pick up
pick up on
picky
pick-your-own
pick your poison
repick
ripe for the picking
rockpicker
rockpicking
sort-while-pick
unpick
U-pick
you-pick
Translations:
lang: Spanish
word: puya