pick > define

noun

• The person or thing chosen or selected.
  • usage: "he was my pick for mayor"
  • synonyms: choice, selection
• The quantity of a crop that is harvested.
  • usage: "he sent the first picking of berries to the market"; "it was the biggest peach pick in years"
  • synonyms: picking
• The best people or things in a group.
  • usage: "the cream of England's young men were killed in the Great War"
  • synonyms: cream
• The yarn woven across the warp yarn in weaving.
  • synonyms: woof, weft, filling
• A small thin device (of metal or plastic or ivory) used to pluck a stringed instrument.
  • synonyms: plectrum, plectron
• A thin sharp implement used for removing unwanted material.
  • usage: "he used a pick to clean the dirt out of the cracks"
• A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle and a curved head that is pointed on both ends.
  • usage: "they used picks and sledges to break the rocks"
  • synonyms: pickax, pickaxe
• A basketball maneuver; obstructing an opponent with one's body.
  • usage: "he was called for setting an illegal pick"
• The act of choosing or selecting.
  • usage: "your choice of colors was unfortunate"; "you can take your pick"
  • synonyms: choice, selection, option

verb

• Select carefully from a group.
  • usage: "She finally picked her successor"; "He picked his way carefully"
• Look for and gather.
  • usage: "pick mushrooms"; "pick flowers"
  • synonyms: pluck, cull
• Harass with constant criticism.
  • usage: "Don't always pick on your little brother"
  • synonyms: blame, find fault
• Provoke.
  • usage: "pick a fight or a quarrel"
• Remove in small bits.
  • usage: "pick meat from a bone"
• Remove unwanted substances from, such as feathers or pits.
  • usage: "Clean the turkey"
  • synonyms: clean
• Pilfer or rob.
  • usage: "pick pockets"
• Pay for something.
  • usage: "pick up the tab"; "pick up the burden of high-interest mortgages"; "foot the bill"
  • synonyms: foot
• Pull lightly but sharply with a plucking motion.
  • usage: "he plucked the strings of his mandolin"
  • synonyms: pluck, plunk
• Attack with or as if with a pickaxe of ice or rocky ground, for example.
  • usage: "Pick open the ice"
  • synonyms: break up
• Hit lightly with a picking motion.
  • synonyms: peck, beak
• Eat intermittently; take small bites of.
  • usage: "He pieced at the sandwich all morning"; "She never eats a full meal-she just nibbles"
  • synonyms: nibble, piece

• (v.i.) To eat slowly, sparingly or by morsels; to nibble.
• (v.) 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.
• (v.) To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
• (v.i.) To do anything nicely or carefully or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
• (v.) To open (a lock) as by a wire.
• (n.) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
• (n.) That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
• (v.) To take up; especially, 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.
• (v.) To trim.
• (v.) To throw; to pitch.
• (n.) Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick.
• (n.) 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.
• (v.) 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.
• (n.) 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.
• (n.) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
• (n.) A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
• (v.) 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.
• (v.i.) To steal; to pilfer.
• (n.) A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, -- used by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
• (v.) 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.