pick

plural picks

1. A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
2. slangnauticalAn anchor.

   It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.

   2021 December 28, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 41, column 2

3. A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
4. A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
5. A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
6. entertainmentA tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
7. obsoleteA pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.

   Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.

   c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

8. A choice; ability to choose.

   France and Russia have the pick of our stables.

   1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?

9. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
10. AustraliaPasture; feed, for animals.First known use 20th c.

    ‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’

    2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 69

    1 more example

    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.

    2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 232

11. ball gamesA screen.
12. ball gamesAn offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
13. American footballAn interception.
14. ball gamesA good defensive play by an infielder.
15. ball gamesA pickoff.
16. datedmediaA 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

    c. 1866, Thomas MacKellar, The American Printer

17. paintingartThat which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
18. businessThe 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

    1 more example

    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.

    2026, Sydney Sogol, “Blue Morpho Runner”, in Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 50

present singular third person picks · participle present picking · participle past picked · past picked · first person past singular picked · archaic present second person singular pickest · past second person singular picked · archaic past second person singular pickedst · present singular third person picks · archaic present singular third person picketh · past singular third person picked · past plural picked · past subjunctive picked · participle present picking · participle past picked

1. To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.

   He picked his nose.

   1 more example

   Don't pick at that scab.

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.

   It's time to pick the tomatoes.

3. To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.

   to pick feathers from a fowl

   1 more example

   She picked flowers in the meadow.

4. To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.

   to pick rags

5. 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

   4 more examples

   Did you pick Master Slender's purse?

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.

   1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC

   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.

   1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 43, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC

   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.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

6. To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.

   I'll pick the one with the nicest name.

   1 more example

   She had to pick her steps to avoid the flutters of the quivering, bleeding bodies.

   1907, Journal of Zoöphily, volume 14, number 3, Philadelphia: American Anti-Vivisection Society, page 26

7. transitiveTo seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
8. ball gamesTo 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.

9. entertainmentTo pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.

   He picked a tune on his banjo.

10. 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.

    1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

11. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.

    Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?

    1693, John Dryden, Third Satire of Persius

12. 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.

13. To steal; to pilfer.

    to keep my hands from picking and stealing

    1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC

14. obsoleteTo throw; to pitch.

    as high as I could pick my lance

    c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

    Synonyms: fling, hurl, bung, cast, chuck, chunk, cook, dash

15. datedtransitiveTo 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.
16. ambitransitiveTo separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.

    to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.

    1 more 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.

    1912, Victor Whitechurch, Thrilling Stories of the Railway

17. ball gamesTo screen.
18. informalAmerican footballTo intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player.

    The pass was almost picked, but the tight end was able to hold on.

plural Picks

1. A surname.