picked

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of pick

comparative more picked · superlative most picked

1. oftenHaving a pick, or a particular number/type of pick (in any sense of the word)
2. Chosen; selected.

   1 more example

   For instance, in the year 1582 Akbar, who was a philosopher and a humorist as well as a model ruler, sent an invitation to the 'wise men among the Franks' at Goa to journey to Agra, there to meet in public controversy before him a picked band of Mohammedan mullas and prove the superiority of their faith.

   1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

3. entertainmentPlayed by picking the strings
4. biologyHaving a pike or spine on the back.

   the picked dogfish

5. obsoletefine; spruce; smart; precise; dainty

   Why then I suck my teeth and catechize / My picked man of countries:

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 193

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   He is too / picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, / too peregrinate, as I may call it.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], line 13

6. obsoletepointed; sharp

   […] an useful bow a skilful bowyer wrought, / Which picked and polished both the ends he hid with horns of gold.

   [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC

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   A very good way to take them, is to drive a stake into the ground about four foot high above the surface of the earth: Let the stake be made picked at the top, that the jay may not settle on it.

   1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC