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[pik] /pɪk/
verb (used with object)
to choose or select from among a group:
to pick a contestant from the audience.
to seek and find occasion for; provoke:
to pick a fight.
to attempt to find; seek out:
to pick flaws in an argument.
to steal the contents of:
Her pocket was picked yesterday.
to pick rock; to pick ore.
to form (a hole) by such action:
to pick a hole in asphalt.
to pick one's teeth.
to pick a fowl.
to detach or remove piece by piece with the fingers:
She picked the meat from the bones.
to pluck or gather one by one:
to pick flowers.
to eat daintily or in small morsels.
to separate, pull apart, or pull to pieces:
to pick fibers.
  1. to pluck (the strings of an instrument).
verb (used without object)
The hens were busily picking about in their coop.
to select carefully or fastidiously.
to pilfer; steal.
to pluck or gather fruit, flowers, etc.
Basketball. to execute a pick.
the act of choosing or selecting; choice; selection:
to take one's pick.
a person or thing that is selected:
He is our pick for president.
the choicest or most desirable part, example, or examples:
This horse is the pick of the stable.
the right of selection:
He gave me my pick of the litter.
The pick was poor this season.
a stroke with something pointed:
The rock shattered at the first pick of the ax.
Compare pick-and-roll.
Verb phrases
pick at,
  1. to find fault with unnecessarily or persistently; nag.
  2. to eat sparingly or daintily:
    As he was ill, he only picked at his food.
  3. to grasp at; touch; handle:
    The baby loved to pick at her mother's glasses.
pick off,
  1. to remove by pulling or plucking off.
  2. to single out and shoot:
    The hunter picked off a duck rising from the marsh.
pick on,
  2. to single out; choose:
    The professor always picks on me to translate long passages.
pick out,
  1. to choose; designate:
    to pick out one's successor.
    to pick out a well-known face in a crowd.
  3. to discern (sense or meaning); discriminate.
  5. to extract by picking.
Eager shoppers were picking over the shirts on the bargain tables.
pick up,
  1. to lift or take up:
    to pick up a stone.
  2. to collect, especially in an orderly manner:
    Pick up the tools when you're finished.
  4. to gain by occasional opportunity; obtain casually:
    to pick up a livelihood.
  5. to learn, as by experience:
    I've picked up a few Japanese phrases.
  6. to claim:
    to pick up one's bags at an airport.
    to pick up Rome on one's radio.
  9. to accelerate; gain (speed).
  10. to put in good order; tidy:
    to pick up a room.
  11. to make progress; improve:
    Business is beginning to pick up.
  12. to catch or contract, as a disease.
    Let's pick up some dates tonight.
  14. to resume or continue after being left off:
    Let's pick up the discussion in our next meeting.
  15. Informal. to take into custody; arrest:
    They picked him up for vagrancy.
  16. Informal. to obtain; find; purchase:
    She picked up some nice shoes on sale.
  17. Slang. to steal:
    to pick up jewels and silver.
  18. to accept, as in order to pay:
    to pick up the check.
pick up on, Informal.
    to pick up on the hostess's hostility.
    to pick up on a troubled student.
pick apart, to criticize severely or in great detail:
They picked her apart the moment she left the room.
She picked her way across the muddy field.
pick someone's brains. brain (def 12).
1250-1300; v. Middle English pyken, pikken, pekken, cognate with Dutch pikken, German picken, Old Norse pikka to pick; akin to peck2, pike5; (noun) derivative of the v.
Related forms
pickable, adjective
unpickable, adjective
4. rob, pilfer. 12. reap, collect.
Synonym Study
1. See choose.


[pik] /pɪk/
a heavy tool consisting of an iron or steel head, usually curved, tapering to a point at one or both ends, mounted on a wooden handle, and used for loosening and breaking up soil, rock, etc.; pickax.
a hammerlike tool for the rough dressing of stone, having two sharp, pyramidal faces.
any pointed or other tool or instrument for picking (often used in combination):
a toothpick; an ice pick.
Music. plectrum.
Slang. a large pocket comb having long, widely spaced teeth.
1300-50; Middle English pikk(e); perhaps variant of pike5


[pik] /pɪk/
verb (used with object)
to cast (a shuttle).
(in a loom) one passage of the shuttle.
filling (def 5).
variant of pitch1 Unabridged
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Examples from the web for pick
  • Governments that try to pick winners often choose losers.
  • But a pick-and-choose tour of famous masterpieces ignores the full scope of the collection.
  • Once the pick list is generated, warehouse staff is ready to gather-or pick-inventory.
  • pick when the papery husk is filled out with fruit and the husk begins to turn slightly brown.
  • Thanks partly to the demand for mortgages, bank lending is starting to pick up again for the first time in years.
  • Now ask a friend to pick them up and compare their weight.
  • We pick huge handfuls of figs from her tree each evening, and yet the ground is still splattered with surplus.
  • Or pick one of their categories, such as natives or edibles.
  • To be fair, that's a long time to stoop and pick up a penny.
British Dictionary definitions for pick


to choose (something) deliberately or carefully, from or as if from a group or number; select
to pluck or gather (fruit, berries, or crops) from (a tree, bush, field, etc): to pick hops, to pick a whole bush
(transitive) to clean or prepare (fruit, poultry, etc) by removing the indigestible parts
(transitive) to remove loose particles from (the teeth, the nose, etc)
(esp of birds) to nibble or gather (corn, etc)
when intr, foll by at. to nibble (at) fussily or without appetite
to separate (strands, fibres, etc), as in weaving
(transitive) to provoke (an argument, fight, etc) deliberately
(transitive) to steal (money or valuables) from (a person's pocket)
(transitive) to open (a lock) with an instrument other than a key
to pluck the strings of (a guitar, banjo, etc)
(transitive) to make (one's way) carefully on foot: they picked their way through the rubble
pick and choose, to select fastidiously, fussily, etc
pick someone's brains, to obtain information or ideas from someone
freedom or right of selection (esp in the phrase take one's pick)
a person, thing, etc, that is chosen first or preferred: the pick of the bunch
the act of picking
the amount of a crop picked at one period or from one area
(printing) a speck of dirt or paper fibre or a blob of ink on the surface of set type or a printing plate
Derived Forms
pickable, adjective
Word Origin
C15: from earlier piken to pick, influenced by French piquer to pierce; compare Middle Low German picken, Dutch pikken


a tool with a handle carrying a long steel head curved and tapering to a point at one or both ends, used for loosening soil, breaking rocks, etc
any of various tools used for picking, such as an ice pick or toothpick
a plectrum
(transitive) to pierce, dig, or break up (a hard surface) with a pick
(transitive) to form (a hole) in this way
Word Origin
C14: perhaps variant of pike²


/in weaving pɪk/
(transitive) to cast (a shuttle)
one casting of a shuttle
a weft or filling thread
Word Origin
C14: variant of pitch1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for pick

early 13c., picken "to peck;" c.1300, piken "to work with a pick," probably representing a fusion of Old English *pician "to prick," (implied by picung "a piercing, pricking," an 8c. gloss on Latin stigmata) with Old Norse pikka "to prick, peck," from a common Germanic root (cf. Middle Dutch picken, German picken "to pick, peck"), perhaps imitative. Influence from Middle French piquer "to prick, sting" (see pike (n.2)) also is possible, but that French word generally is not considered a source of the English word. Related: Picked; picking.

Meaning "to eat with small bites" is from 1580s. The meaning "to choose, select, pick out" emerged late 14c., from earlier meaning "to pluck with the fingers" (early 14c.). Sense of "to rob, plunder" (c.1300) weakened to a milder sense of "steal petty things" by late 14c. Of forcing locks with a pointed tool, by 1540s. Meaning "to pluck (a banjo)" is recorded from 1860. To pick a quarrel, etc. is from mid-15c.; to pick at "find fault with" is from 1670s. Pick on "single out for adverse attention" is from late 14c.; pick off "shoot one by one" is recorded from 1810; baseball sense of "to put out a runner on base" is from 1939. Also cf. pick up. To pick and choose "select carefully" is from 1660s (choose and pick is attested from c.1400).


c.1200, "pointed tool for breaking up rock or ground," variant of pike (n.4). Meaning "sharp tool" is from mid-14c.

mid-15c., "a blow with a pointed instrument," from pick (v.). Meaning "plectrum for a guitar, lute, etc." is from 1895; as a type of basketball block, from 1951; meaning "choicest part or example" is first recorded 1760.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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