pick a hole in someone's coat

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English

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Verb

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pick a hole in someone's coat (third-person singular simple present picks a hole in someone's coat, present participle picking a hole in someone's coat, simple past and past participle picked a hole in someone's coat)

  1. (archaic) To find fault with someone.
    • 1677, Aphra Behn, The Rover, or, the Banish't Cavaliers, page 8:
      'Sheartikins, they know I follow it to do it no good, unless they pick a hole in my Coat for lending you Money now and then, which is a greater Crime to my Conscience, Gentlemen, than to the Common-Wealth.