pick

verb

to choose, select from a group, pluck
"pick at:" to take small pieces out of
work at with long slender instrument

L5430 on Wikidata ↗

noun

kind of tool

L5431 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /pɪk/ / [pʰɪk]

name

Etymology: * As an English, Dutch, and German surname, related to pickaxe. * As a German surname, from Low German pick (“pitch”), itself ultimately from Latin pix. * As an English surname, from pike (“kind of fish”).

A surname.

noun

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”).

A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
An anchor.
“It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.”
A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
“Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.”
A choice; ability to choose.
“France and Russia have the pick of our stables.”
That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
Pasture; feed, for animals.
“‘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.”
A screen.
An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
An interception.
A good defensive play by an infielder.
A pickoff.
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.
“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”
That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
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.
“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.”

verb

To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
“Don't pick at that scab.”
“He picked his nose.”
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.
“It's time to pick the tomatoes.”
To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
“She picked flowers in the meadow.”
“to pick feathers from a fowl”
To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
“to pick rags”
To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
“to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket”
“Did you pick Master Slender's purse?”
To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
“I'll pick the one with the nicest name.”
To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
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.
“He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.”
To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
“He picked a tune on his banjo.”
To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
“The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.”
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
“Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?”
To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
“I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs.”
To steal; to pilfer.
“to keep my hands from picking and stealing”
To throw; to pitch.
“as high as I could pick my lance”
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.
To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
“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.”
To screen.
To intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player.
“The pass was almost picked, but the tight end was able to hold on.”