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verb Pick v. t. (past & past part. picked; pres. part. picking) 1.To throw; to pitch. (Obs.) "As high as I could pick my lance." 2.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. 3.To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc. 4.To open (a lock) as by a wire. 5.To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck; to gather, as fruit from a tree, flowers from the stalk, feathers from a fowl, etc. 6.To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth; as, to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket. "Did you pick Master Slender's purse?" "He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet." 7.To choose; to select; to separate as choice or desirable; to cull; as, to pick one's company; to pick one's way; often with out. "One man picked out of ten thousand." 8.To take up; esp., to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together; as, to pick rags; often with up; as, to pick up a ball or stones; to pick up information. To pick at, to tease or vex by pertinacious annoyance. To pick a bone with. See under Bone. To pick a thank, to curry favor. (Obs.) To pick off. (a)To pluck; to remove by picking. (b)To shoot or bring down, one by one; as, sharpshooters pick off the enemy. To pick out. (a)To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors. (b)To select from a number or quantity. To pick to pieces, to pull apart piece by piece; hence (Colloq.), to analyze; esp., to criticize in detail. To pick a quarrel, to give occasion of quarrel intentionally. To pick up. (a)To take up, as with the fingers. (b)To get by repeated efforts; to gather here and there; as, to pick up a livelihood; to pick up news.
Pick v. i. 1.To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. "Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?" 2.To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care. 3.To steal; to pilfer. "To keep my hands from picking and stealing." To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. (Colloq. U.S.)
noun Pick n. 1.A sharp-pointed tool for picking; often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock. 2.(Mining & Mech.) A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, used for digging ino the ground by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones. 3.A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler. (Obs.) "Take down my buckler... and grind the pick on 't." 4.Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick; in cat breeding, the owner of a stud gets the pick of the litter. "France and Russia have the pick of our stables." 5.Hence: That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock. 6.(Print.) A particle of ink or paper imbedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and occasioning a spot on a printed sheet. 7.(Painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture. 8.(Weaving) The blow which drives the shuttle, the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, A weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch. Pick dressing (Arch.), in cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions. Pick hammer, a pick with one end sharp and the other blunt, used by miners.
Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48
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