pick it up

verb

To hurry up, pick up the pace.

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Meanings

verbpick it up (third-person singular simple present picks it up, present participle picking it up, simple past and past participle picked it up)

present singular third person picks it up · participle present picking it up · participle past picked it up · past picked it up

  1. To hurry up, pick up the pace.

Origin

Its exact orignal is unknown, but possibly comes from the practice of scatting and toasting in Jamaican ska music. The first recorded use of the term comes from The Employees's 1980 song "Pick it Up". The related Jamaican phrase "You pick him up, you lick him dung" is recorded as early as 1966 in Prince Buster's song "Hard Man Fe Dead".

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pick it up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pick%20it%20up

MLA

“pick it up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pick%20it%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pick it up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pick%20it%20up.

Source: pick it up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.