pick out

verb

Etymology: From pick + out. Compare Saterland Frisian uutpikke (“to pick out”), Dutch uitpikken (“to pick out”).

1. To remove by picking.

   “But lering and lurking here and there like ſpies, / The devil tere their tunges and pike out their ies!”

   “Madame Defarge herself picked out the pattern on her sleeve with her toothpick, and saw and heard something inaudible and invisible a long way off.”

2. To select.

   “Theſe broken fragments, John de Fordun, vvho lived in the fourteenth century, collected vvith a pious induſtry, and from them picked out materials, vvhich he formed into a regular hiſtory.”

   “Very often husbands would patronise my boutique and pick out something for the little lady and, in passing, pick out something for themselves.”

3. To distinguish; discern.

   “The young birds cry out for food, and the parents returning from the sea manage to pick out their own amid a mass of lookalikes.”

4. To ornament or relieve with lines etc. of a different, usually lighter, colour.

   “a dark green carriage body picked out with red”

   “Away on the farthest cape or headland of the long islet, on a strip of turf beyond the last rank of roses, the duellists had already crossed swords. Evening above them was a dome of virgin gold, and, distant as they were, every detail was picked out.”

5. To detect using one's senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste).

   “And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock.”

6. To send a long pass or cross to.

   “Ameobi skipped away down the left in the 39th minute and tried to pick out Shearer with a cross but his delivery was cut out by goalkeeper Jussi J...”

7. To play music slowly, such as when practicing.