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Entry 20 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Pick

/(pĭk)/ · IPA /pɪk/
01 v. t. To throw; to pitch.
imp. & p. p. Picked; p. pr. & vb. n. Picking
  1. 1.
    To throw; to pitch.[Obs.]
    “As high as I could pick my lance.” — Shak.
  2. 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. 3.
    To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
  4. 4.
    To open (a lock) as by a wire.
  5. 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. 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?” — Shak.
    “He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.” — Cowper.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 9.
    To trim.[Obs.]
Phrases & compounds
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.
To pick off — To pluck; to remove by picking
To pick out — To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors
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 — To take up, as with the fingers
02 v. i. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
  1. 1.
    To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
    “Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?” — Dryden.
  2. 2.
    To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
  3. 3.
    To steal; to pilfer.
Phrases & compounds
To pick up — to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business.
03 n. A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
  1. 1.
    A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
  2. 2.
    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.(Mining & Mech.)
  3. 3.
    A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.[Obs.]
  4. 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.” — Ld. Lytton.
  5. 5.
    That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
  6. 6.
    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.(Print.)
  7. 7.
    That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.(Painting)
  8. 8.
    The blow which drives the shuttle, -- the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute;(Weaving)
Phrases & compounds
Pick dressing — 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.