pick
See also: Pick
English
Etymology
From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną, *pūkijaną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)).
Pronunciation
Audio (US): (file) - Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /pɪk/, [pʰɪk]
Audio (AU): (file) Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -ɪk
- Homophone: pic
Noun
pick (plural picks)
- A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
- A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
- A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
- A choice; ability to choose.
- (Can we date this quote by Lord Lytton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
- (Can we date this quote by Lord Lytton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
- (basketball) A screen.
- (lacrosse) An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
- (American football) An interception.
- (baseball) A good defensive play by an infielder.
- (baseball) A pickoff.
- (music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
- A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
- (obsolete) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
- (Can we date this quote by Beaumont and Fletcher and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.
- (Can we date this quote by Beaumont and Fletcher and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (printing, dated) A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of MacKellar to this entry?)
- (art, painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
- (weaving) The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.
- so many picks to an inch
Derived terms
Translations
pickaxe
|
tool to open a lock
comb with long widely spaced teeth
|
choice
basketball: screen
lacrosse: offensive tactic
football: interception
baseball: good defensive play by an infielder
baseball: pick-off
music: plectrum — see plectrum
Verb
pick (third-person singular simple present picks, present participle picking, simple past and past participle picked)
- To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
- Don't pick at that scab.
- He picked his nose.
- To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.
- It's time to pick the tomatoes.
- To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
- She picked flowers in the meadow.
- to pick feathers from a fowl
- To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
- to pick rags
- To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
- to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Did you pick Master Slender's purse?
- (Can we date this quote by Cowper and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
- (Can we date this quote by Dickens and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- You've gotta pick a pocket or two
- To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
- I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
- Seek an opportunity to quarrel or argue with someone.
- (cricket) To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.
- He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
- (music) To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
- He picked a tune on his banjo.
- To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
- To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
- (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?
- (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
- To steal; to pilfer.
- Book of Common Prayer
- to keep my hands from picking and stealing
- Book of Common Prayer
- (obsolete) To throw; to pitch.
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- as high as I could pick my lance
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (dated) 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.
- (transitive, intransitive) To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
- to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
- (Can we date this quote by Victor Whitechurch and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Naphtha lamps shed a weird light over a busy scene, for the work was being continued night and day. A score or so of sturdy navvies were shovelling and picking along the track.
Derived terms
Terms derived from the pick (verb)
Translations
to pick — see choose
to grasp and pull with fingers
|
to remove a fruit or plant for consumption
|
to decide between options
|
cricket: to recognise the type of ball being bowled
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
German
Pronunciation
Verb
pick
- (deprecated template usage) Imperative singular of picken.
- (colloquial) (deprecated template usage) First-person singular present of picken.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms with audio links
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪk
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Requests for date/Lord Lytton
- en:Basketball
- en:Lacrosse
- en:Football (American)
- en:Baseball
- en:Music
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for date/Beaumont and Fletcher
- en:Printing
- English dated terms
- Requests for quotations/MacKellar
- en:Art
- en:Painting
- en:Weaving
- English verbs
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- Requests for date/Cowper
- Requests for date/Dickens
- en:Cricket
- Requests for date/Dryden
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- Requests for date/Victor Whitechurch
- English basic words
- en:Tools
- German 1-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:German/ɪk
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- German colloquialisms