| 释义 |
▪ I. pick, n.1|pɪk|
Forms: 4 pikk, 4–6 pyk(k, 4–8 pic, 5 pikke, pykke, 6 pict, pycke, 6–7 picke, 7 pik, 6– pick.
[app. a collateral form, with short vowel, of pike n.1 (Cf. the collateral forms pick and pike in pick v.1) Pick is the form in general English use in sense 1; in other senses it is either obs., or only in local use in names of tools or implements. In senses 1 a, 1 b, 4 a, a dial. variant is peck (peck n.2).]
I.
1. a. A tool consisting of an iron bar, usually curved, steel-tipped, tapering squarely to a point at one end, and a chisel-edge or point at the other (but sometimes blunt at one end), attached through an eye in the centre to a wooden handle placed perpendicularly to its concave side; a pickaxe, mandril, mattock, ‘slitter’: used for loosening and breaking up stiff or hard ground or gravel, splitting up compact masses of rock, and the like. The pick and spade are the ordinary excavating or mining tools.
(= pike n.1 1, peck n.2 1, which still exist as dial. forms.)
1340Ayenb. 108 Þanne nymþ he his pic and his spade and beginþ to delue and to myny. 1375Barbour Bruce ii. 541 Then war the wiffys thyrland the wall With pikkis. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 726/30 Hec liga, vel mera, a pyk. 1496Nottingham Rec. III. 291 For mendyng of ij. pykkes to digg down gravell. 1552–3Inv. Ch. Goods, Staffs. in Ann. Lichfield (1863) IV. 45 A pick and a spade to make graves with. 1565Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 360 Ane hundrith schulis, xl pickis and mattokis. 1653E. Manlove Lead Mines 207 (E.D.S.) No miners..Pick..May be removed from their ground. 1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 42 [It] would be Dangerous for two persons to Work together, least they should strike their Coal-Pics into one another. 1851H. Melville Whale xxvi. 128 The arm that wields a pick or drives a spike. 1903Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., In salt-mining the picks used are of a somewhat special construction,..the head is straight but tapering at each end, with sharp steel points.
b. A pointed or edged hammer used for dressing millstones (also formerly stone shot); a mill-pick; also a pointed hammer for stone-cutting and for breaking coal.
(= pike n.1 1, peck n.2 1, which occur as dial. forms.)
1483Cath. Angl. 278/1 A Pykke of A Milnere. 1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxvi. (1748) 372 The mill-stones from the quarr with sharpen'd picks could get. 1805Forsyth Beauties Scotl. (1806) IV. 407 [In splitting blocks of granite] they..dig a row of little oblong grooves..by means of a weighty tool like a hammer, drawn to a blunt point at both ends, and highly tempered at the point. This they call a pick. 1842Francis Dict. Arts, etc., Pick, a hammer for dressing the stones of a flour mill. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Pick,..a sharp-pointed mason's tool for facing limestone. 1884Upton-on-Severn Gloss., Pick, or Peck,..a pointed hammer for breaking coal.
c. Archæol. A prehistoric implement used for breaking up rocks, soil, etc.
1949W. F. Albright Archaeol. of Palestine iii. 59 Among large flint artifacts the most noteworthy are sickle-blades and ‘picks’, which point to the agricultural character of Natufian culture... Some of the so-called picks are rather hoes, used to break up the ground before sowing grain. 1959J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. vi. 157 Small, nearly parallel-sided picks.
II.
†2. A spike, a sharp point, as the pointed or piked end of a staff, a hedgehog's prickle or spine, or the like; the spike in the middle of a buckler: = pike n.1 2. Obs.
1495Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxii. The yrchyn..his skynne is closyd abowte wyth pickys [MSS. pikes] and pryckes. 1599Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. in Hazl. Dodsley VII. 318, I had..then come in with a cross blow, and over the pick of his buckler two ells long, it would have cried twang, twang, metal, metal. 1612Beaum. & Fl. Cupid's Rev. iv. iii, Take down my Buckler, and sweep the Cobwebs off: and grind the pick ont. 1614–15in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 296 Item for guilding the Iron pickes in the greate posts xvs. 1630S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. i. xiv. §10 (1670) 55 The reason of man hath many visages: it is a two-edged Sword, a Staff with two picks. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 313/1 A strong thick Staff..Hooped with Iron at both ends; into one is fastned a long Pin or Iron pick.
†3. A pikestaff: = pike n.1 3. Obs. rare.
13..Sir Beues (A.) 2241 And to þe gate Beues ȝode..pyk and skrippe be is side. 1673R. Head Canting Acad. 192 Though he tip them the piks, they nap him agen.
4. The name of various pointed or pronged instruments:
†a. for cutting or gathering peas, beans, etc. = peck n.2 (quots. 1784–1813). [Cf. obs. Du. picke falx frumentaria, messoria, falx qua frumentum inciditur (Kilian).] Obs.
1423in Rogers Agric. & Pr. III. 548, 2 Pikkys for hacking peas.
b. A pitchfork, a hay-fork (= pike n.1 3 b); a fork-rake for collecting sea-weed. dial.
[1410,1472: see pike n.1 3 b.] 1777in Horæ Subsec. 325 (E.D.D.). 1794T. Davis Agric. Wilts (1811) 263 Prong or pick, a fork for the stable, or for haymaking. 1863Morton Cycl. Agric. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Pick or Pikle, a hay-fork. 1895Longm. Mag. Nov. 33 He [the kelper] is armed with a ‘pick’, an implement resembling a very strong hay fork, but with prongs set, like those of a rake, at right angles to the handle. With this pick..he grapples the tumbling sea⁓weed and drags it up to the beach.
c. ‘A sort of Tool us'd by Carvers’ (Phillips 1706). (See pike n.1 2 c.)
d. Fishing. A kind of gaff; an eel-spear; an instrument for detaching limpets. dial.
1875G. C. Davies Rambles Sch. Field-Club xxxv. 262 ‘Stand by with the pick, it is a big 'un’, and a fine codling was hauled in. The ‘pick’ was a rude kind of gaff. 1883― Norfolk Broads xxxi. (1884) 244 The [eel-spear] in use on the Yare and Bure is the ‘pick’, formed of four broad serrated blades or tines, spread out like a fan; and the eels get wedged between these. 1898Shetland News 22 Jan., He took his cuddie an' pick an' guid i' da lempit ebb.
5. a. An instrument for picking: chiefly in Comb., as ear-pick, toothpick, etc. b. Also short for (a) toothpick; (b) picklock (Cent. Dict. 1890).
1619Fletcher Mons. Thomas i. ii, Undone without Redemption; he eats with picks. 1890Cent. Dict., Pick,..a toothpick. colloq.
c. Mus. A plectrum. Cf. pick v.1 12. orig. U.S.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 243/2 Mandolin picks, made of celluloid, imitation tortoise shell, oval pattern. 1973Advocate-News (Barbados) 24 Feb. 3/6 (Advt.), Attention all musicians... Just arrived:..Picks Finger Picks Thumb Picks. 1976D. Munrow Instruments Middle Ages & Renaissance 25/4 The long stem of the quill is shown held between the third and index finger (as a modern guitarist holds a flat pick).
III. †6. (See quot. 1688.) Obs. (= pike n.1 5.)
1585Rec. Leicester (1905) III. 217, xi lands viz. viii in the midle of the furlong, ii picks of the south side, and on hadland. [Ibid., 4 lands 23 pikes lying south upon Knighton Mere.] 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 137/1 Pick of land, is a parcel of Land that runs into a corner. 1775Ash, Pick,..a small parcel of land, an odd bit of land.
IV.
7. The diamond in playing-cards. Also transf.: see quot. 1828. Now north. dial.
1598Florio, Quadri, squares, those that we call diamonds or picts vpon playing cardes. 1611Cotgr., Quarreau,..a Diamond, or Picke, at Cardes. 1648Herrick Hesper., Oberon's Palace 48 Those picks or diamonds in the card, With peeps of harts, of club and spade. 1791Gentl. Mag. Jan. 16 The common people, in a great part of Yorkshire, invariably call diamonds, picks. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Picks, the suit of diamonds at cards. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v. Pick, ‘Picks and hearts’, red spots on the shins occasioned by sitting too near the fire.
V.
8. attrib. and Comb., as pick-carrier, pick-handle, pick-shaft, pick-sharpener, pick-sharper, pick-shop, pick-work; pick-bearing, pick-nosed adjs.; pick-dressing, in masonry, a pitted facing produced by a pointed tool, broached hewn-work; pick-hammer, (a) ‘a pointed hammer for dressing granite’ (Simmonds Dict. Trade 1858); (b) ‘a hammer with a point, used in cobbing’ (Raymond Mining Gloss. 1881); pick-hole: see quot.; pick-money, -pence: see quot.; pick-pole U.S. = picaroon n.2
1891Kipling City Dreadf. Nt. 86 The grimy, sweating, cardigan-jacketed, ammunition-booted, *pick-bearing ruffian turns into a well-kept English gentleman.
1888W. E. Nicholson Gloss. Coal-Trade Terms Northumbld., *Pick⁓carrier. 1903Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. Pick sb.1, Pick-carrier, a boy employed to carry the blunt ‘picks’ to the pick-shop to be sharpened.
1895Funk's Stand. Dict., *Pick-dressing, a tooling of the face of a stone with a sharp pick or hammer.
1850N. Kingsley Diary 1 Nov. (1914) 156 Tinkered a little at *Pick handles, putting door in the tent, [etc.]. 1873J. Miller Life amongst Modocs v. 64 A long white pole, perhaps a sort of pick-handle. 1908Sears, Roebuck Catal. 522/2 Drifting pick handles, 34 inches long. 1979D. Lowden Boudapesti 3 xiii. 68 The man who'd hit him four times with the pickhandle.
1894Heslop Northumbld. Wds., *Pick-hole, a wound made by the point of a pick. A miner's term.
Ibid., *Pick-money, pick-pence, the money paid by the hewer to the ‘pick sharper’.
1888W. E. Nicholson Gloss. Coal-Trade Terms, *Pick-pence.
1837North Amer. Rev. Apr. 353 The persons who undertake it [sc. breaking a log-jam] must go on to the mass of logs, work some out with their *pickpoles, [etc.]. 1972Christian Science Monitor 28 Sept. 16/3 The river-drivers could stay on a pitching, twisting long log, keeping balance with a pick-pole.
1497Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 349 Item, giffin to ane hors to bere *pykschaftis, spadis, and sic stuf..vs. xjd. 1887P. M'Neill Blawearie 86 [He was] batted out by the men with their pickshafts.
1892in A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus (Ohio) II. 825 He obtained employment..as a *pick-sharpener.
1888Greenwell Coal Trade Gloss. 61 The colliery smith (called the *pick sharper).
1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 112 When the ground requires some *pick-work..it costs more. 1883Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal-mining, Pickwork, cutting coal with a pick.
▪ II. † pick, n.2 Obs.
Also 6 picke, pl. pykkis.
A collateral form, chiefly Sc., of pike n.5, F. pique, the military weapon.
push and pick: hand to hand combat, hand-grips. to pass the picks = to pass the pikes: see pike n.5 2.
1513Douglas æneis xii. iii. 24 All the rowtis of Awsonyanis,..Furth thryngis at the portis full attonis, With lancis lang and pykkis for the nonis. 1515Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. V. 12 The dichting and heding of my lord governouris speris and pikkis. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Chron. 220 b, Being kept backe with pickes and Iavelyns. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 150 Offering their liues to the push and picke of present death. 1587Mirr. Mag., Elstride l, How I past the pickes of painfull woe. 1639Baillie in Z. Boyd's Zion's Flowers (1855) Introd. 45, I furnished to half-a-dozen..fellows, musquets and picks.
▪ III. pick, n.3
[f. pick v.1, in various detached uses.]
1. An act of picking; a stroke with something pointed.
1513Douglas æneis ii. ix. 64 The auld waiklie..A dart did cast, quhilk, with a pik, can stynt On his harnys. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. i, I'll..take a pick at your head with the boat-hook. 1895E. Anglian Gloss., Pick or Bang, a way of deciding which side is to go in first in any game. A stick is thrown up, and if it falls upright it is pick, and bang if it falls flatling.
2. The picking of a quarrel.
a1648Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) 38 He understood this expostulation to be nothing but the pick of a Quarrel to assist the French.
3. An act of choosing or selecting; transf. that which is selected; the best or choicest portion or example of anything; the choicest product or contents.
1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 58, I might have my pick and choice of all the..dukes in the nation. 1826D. Anderson Poems (ed. 2) 44 (E.D.D.) Purchase goods at Lon'on town Whare he wad get his pick an' wale. 1829Darwin in Life I. (1887) 177 Letting ― have first pick of the beetles. 1855Browning Up at a Villa ix, You get the pick of the news. 1858Gladstone Homer I. 421 The chiefs are the pick and flower of the whole Greek array. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xi, Mamma—I wish you would not say ‘the pick of them’..it is rather a vulgar expression. 1874Green Short Hist. ii. §6. 90 Customers had to wait..till the buyers of the Abbot had had the pick of the market. 1874[see basket n. 1 d]. 1887Jessopp Arcady iv. 117 These young men..were the very pick of the parish. 1896Graham Red Scaur 23 The lad..he's the pick of the basket.
4. The taking of a bit or mouthful of food; a slender or sparing meal. Now dial.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 253/1 He [the cock] is to be fed..Every meal having 12 picks, or Corns of Barley. a1810Tannahill Poems (1846) 30 See, here's my dish, come tak' a pick o't, But, deed, I fear there's scarce a lick o't. 1835J. D. Carrick Laird of Logan 275 (E.D.D.) There were few in our house could tak ony dinner that day; I took my ordinar pick. 1890P. H. Emerson Wild Life 96 (E.D.D.) I'm gettin' scrannish [hungry] and could do a pick. 1899S. MacManus Chimney Corners 99 Won't ye sit down and have a pick of dinner with us?
5. The quantity or portion of any crop (as hops, peas, etc.) picked or gathered at one time or turn; a gathering.
1887Daily News 13 Dec. 2/4 American and Californian hops are being gradually cleared off the market,..the second pick is now selling at proportionate value.
6. Painting. See quot. and pick v.1 17 a.
1836Smart, Pick,..that which is picked in, either by a point or by a pointed pencil. 1882in Ogilvie; and in later Dicts.
7. Printing.
a. A speck of hardened ink or dirt that gets into the hollows of types in forme and causes a blot on the printed page.
b. An intrusive bit of metal on an electrotype or stereotype plate.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing 387 When..pieces of the..Film that grows on Inck with standing by, or any dirt, get into the Hollows of the Face of the Letter, that Film or Dirt will fill or choak up the Face of the Letter, and Print Black; and is called a Pick; because the Press-man with the Point of a Needle, picks it out. 1731Bailey (ed. 5), A Pick (among Printers), a Blot occasioned by Dirt on the Letters. 1771Luckombe Hist. Printing 352 It will be a Pick, and print black, and deface the work. 1882J. Southward Pract. Printing (1884) 14 Foreign matter that adheres to the face of a type..causes a blotch in the impression. This is called pick. 1886Cassell's Encycl. Dict., Pick,..little drops of metal on stereotype plates.
†8. Each of the spots on dice; = pip n.2 1. Obs. rare.
1610J. Guillim Heraldry iv. xii. 222 The square, which alwaies falleth right howsouer it be cast, is the Embleme of Constancy, but the vncertainety of the Picks, is the very Type of inconstancy, and mutability.
9. A local name of the bar-tailed godwit.
1885Swainson Prov. Names Brit. Birds 198 Bar-tailed Godwit..Pick (Norfolk), Prine (Essex). From its habit of probing the mud for food.
10. In basketball, a permissible block (see quot. 1961).
1951Sun (Baltimore) 24 Dec. 13/2 There is no consistency among officials on calling picks and screens. 1961J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 325 To set a pick, the offensive player is entitled to take up a position in front of a defensive opponent provided such maneuver does not hinder the ‘normal movement’ of the defensive man. 1976A. Cross Question of Max iv. 43 Kate..had become someting of a basketball aficionado... To her..regret, she could never recognize when someone had set a ‘pick’, and she tended to admire the wrong members of any team.
Senses 5–10 in Dict. become 6–11. Add: [3.] b. One who is picked or selected as a member of a sports team; also transf. N. Amer. colloq.
1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 30 June 2-e/1 The 18-year old Kopsky is an 8th-round pick from St. Louis, Mo. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 13 Nov. 3/6 There is much speculation, and little hard evidence, concerning Carter's likely Cabinet picks. 1985Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Oct. c6/5 Bill Derlago will centre Leafs' No. 1 line with Rick Vaive and top rookie pick Wendel Clark on wings. 1988Toronto Sun 13 Apr. 152/3 In the end, the two middle-managers resigned and city personnel committee chairman Ald. Bill Boytchuk rejected the committee's pick.
c. Horse-racing. A horse fancied as a likely winner; a favourite or tip. Also transf. in other sports. Cf. selection n. 2 b. colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.).
1976Washington Post 19 Apr. d9/1 (heading) Graded picks at Pimlico race course. 1977N.Z. Herald 8 Jan. 1–6/6 Punters have often mumbled dire threats about glue factories and knackers' yards when their picks have failed to perform as wished. 1984Runner (U.S.) Oct. 78/2 Zack Barrie and Gidamis Shahanga of Tanzania..were frequent pre-race picks to upset Cova. 1987Golf June 28/3 Oklahoma State University..is the pick to take the 1987 team title.
[4.] b. More generally, a very small portion or amount (of something); a particle or jot. Freq. in negative contexts. Sc. and dial.
1866W. Gregor Dial. Banffshire 125 ‘There hizna a pick o' meal's-corn gehn our's craig this three days.’ ‘There's nae a pick o' clay on's sheen.’ 1916G. Abel Wylins 31 Nae pick o' hate nor spite. 1929Scots Observer 31 Oct. 14 Scarce a pick o' flesh on his banes. 1958C. Hanley Dancing in Streets 123 Ah went roon tae Agnes's an' there wisnae a pick on her—he's been drinking the money again an' she was hauf-sterved. 1976‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth iii. 55, I was saying that to the Reverend Feather and to Dass. They didn't take a pick of notice. 1988Times 13 May 2/1 There is not a pick of evidence that she wilfully encouraged any crime whatever.
▪ IV. pick, n.4 north. dial.
[f. pick v.2]
1. An act of throwing or pitching, a cast, throw; a push or thrust; = pitch n.2
1627Hakewill Apol. (1630) 423 He adventured four hundred thousand Sesterces upon every pick of the dice. 1876Mid-Yorks. Gloss. s.v., He gave him a pick, and over he went..‘Give him a pick-ower’. 1877Holderness Gloss., Pick, a sudden push.
2. Weaving. A cast or throw of the shuttle; the stroke that drives the shuttle: taken as a unit of measurement in reckoning the speed of the loom.
1851L. D. B. Gordon in Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal. p. viii**/2 The new looms can be driven at 220 picks per minute. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1696/2 The pick is the blow which drives the shuttle, and is delivered upon the armed head of the shuttle by the picker-head on the end of the oscillating picker-staff. 1894Contemp. Rev. Feb. 194 Our Lancashire weaver attends on an average 3·9 looms running 240 picks a minute.
b. transf. In textiles, A single thread of the weft (produced by one pick of the shuttle): esp. used in reference to the number of threads in the inch, as determining the fineness of the fabric.
double pick loom, a loom in which two shots or picks of weft are inserted together into the shed or opening of the warp.
1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3) s.v., The relative quality of cotton cloth is denoted by the number of picks it has to the inch. 1876Holdsworth (title) Ready Reckoner for Hanks in Worsted Pieces, being Tables giving the net yarn in hanks required in pieces from five to fifty picks per quarter inch. 1878A. Barlow Weaving xxxi. 318 The warp is eight of black and four of white, the filling is pick and pick, black and white. 1898Daily News 7 Mar. 2/1 Most classes of goods have hitherto been made with a change of shed for each pick of weft put in by the shuttle. The weft in this double Pick Loom is carried on two bobbins placed in a shuttle of the same length as the ordinary one, and such is the nature of the arrangement that the weft is carried through the shed, and one end laid behind the other with the greatest ease.
3. That which is pitched or thrown, as a flat stone in the game of pickie. dial.
1898A. B. Gomme Games II. 451 The pick (small flat stone) is pitched into No. 1 bed..The player must hop and use the foot on the ground to strike ‘pick’.
4. An emetic. dial.
1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pick, an emetic. 1880N. & Q. 6th Ser. I. 344 The doctor gave him a pick.
▪ V. pick, n.5 north. dial.
[ad. F. pique spade in cards, prop. ‘pike’.]
The spade in playing-cards.
1787Grose Provinc. Gloss., Picks, spades; from piques, French. N. Pick-Ace, the ace of spades. N. 1819J. Burness Tales 286 (Jam.) He then laid out the ace o' picks. 1825Jamieson, Picks, the suit of cards called spades. Mearns, Aberd.
▪ VI. pick, n.6
northern form of pitch n.1
▪ VII. pick, n.7
obs. form of pike, mountain peak.
▪ VIII. pick, n.8
obs. and Sc. variant of pique.
▪ IX. pick, n.9
obs. form of pic2, the measure.
▪ X. pick, a. colloq.
[attrib. use of pick n.3 3.]
Picked, chosen, best.
1819Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 302 We had the pick and choice singers of the two great operas. 1899Daily News 2 Sept. 6/4 It is the pick week of the season.
▪ XI. pick, v.1|pɪk|
Forms: α. 1 ? pic(i)an, 4 pyken (5 -yn), piken, 4–9 Sc. and north. dial. pike, pyke. β. (? 4–6 pik), 5–7 picke, 6 pycke, picque, Sc. pyk, pikk, 6– pick.
[c gray][This vb. is found with long and short i, pīken, pik(k)en, pike, pick, of which the former is app. the earlier, but the latter the surviving form in Standard Eng., though pike (paɪk[/c]) survives in the same senses in northern and some midland dialects. The earliest known trace of the word is in the vbl. n. picung (? |iː| or |ɪ|), a gloss on L. stigmata, in Corpus Gloss. c 725, implying a vb. pician (|iː| or |i|) or pícan to puncture. MS. F. of the OE. Chronicle has, anno 796, a verb uncertainly read pycan or pytan, more prob. the latter. Otherwise no examples have yet been found before 1300. In sense 1 there is evident connexion with pick n.1 1, pike n.1 1, and (esp. in 1 b) some agreement of sense with F. piquer (which is similarly related to pic); but the sense-development in Eng. is very different from that of F. piquer and the cognate Pr., Sp., Pg. picar and It. piccare, which adhere always more or less closely to the sense ‘puncture, pierce, prick, sting’, a notion which in Eng. barely enters into sense 2, and is entirely absent from the other senses. On the other hand, verbs akin in form and meaning occur in the Middle and Modern stages of the Teutonic langs.: cf. late ON. (13th c.) pikka, pjakka ‘to peck, prick’ (Vigf.), Norw. pikka, Sw. picka, Da. pikke to pick, peck, pierce with pointed tool, also to beat, palpitate, throb; MLG., LG., E.Fris. pikken to pick, peck, MDu. picken to pick, peck as a bird, pierce or strike with beak, cut with sickle or scythe (Kilian); Du. pikken to pick, peck; mod.Ger. (from LG.) picken to peck as a bird, pick or puncture with a sharp tool (also pīken, pieken). Compare also Welsh pīgo, Corn. piga ‘to prick, sting, pick, peck’ (said e.g. of a pin, a thorn, a bird), which goes with pīg n. fem. ‘anything pointed, sharp point, beak, bill, neb’, with similar forms in Breton, and a large family of derivatives and connected words, from the root pīk-. All these words in the various languages go back to earlier forms in pīk-, pik-, pikk-; but the question of their ulterior history and relations is involved in obscurity and conflicting difficulties. The Romanic verbs point to an original form *pīccāre, related to *pīccus, Sp. pico, F. pic, for conjectures as to the origin of which see pike n.1, note. In OE., pícung is supported by the n. piic, píc, pike; but there are no cognate words in the other Teutonic languages in their early stage. In Welsh and Cornish, however, pīgo, pīga, appear to be native words; going back, with the cognate n. pīg, to a Brythonic root pīk-, corresponding perhaps to a proto-Celtic *qīk- (see pike n.1, note). The modern Irish and Gaelic pic, pioc, and their derivatives are, of course, from English.
The two forms pick and pike might have been treated as separate words, as in the ns. pick1, pike1. But in the inflected forms of the vb. in early quots., the length of the i is often doubtful, so that the separation would be difficult; and in modern times, pike exists only as a dialect form of pick. It is therefore most convenient to combine the two under the current literary form pick, separating the examples, where possible, under α and β, and stating in what senses pike continues in dialect use. Sometimes there is differentiation: in S. E. Scotch, pike is distinct from pick, and used only in senses 2, 2 b, 3, b, c; but in other Sc. and Eng. dialects, and in earlier Sc., pike is used in other senses also.]
I.
1. a. trans. To pierce, penetrate, indent, dig into, or break the surface of (anything) by striking it with something sharp or pointed, as to break up (ground, a road, etc.) with a pick, to indent the surface of (a millstone); † rarely, to hoe. Also absol., to ply the pick, mattock, pickaxe, etc.
αc1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 272 Pikit him, & dikit him, on scorne said he, He pikes & dikes in length, as him likes, how best it may be. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 17 And..hath þe londe to ferme..to pyken it and to weden it. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 424/1 To whome the..bysshop gafe of his wode as moche as he myght pyke & delue & throwe doun with hys owne handes.
βc1375Sc. Leg. Saints vii. (Jacobus minor) 754 He saw a wal wes fow thyke; & his mynowris þare gert he pyke, In entent to caste it done [for thyk, pyk, or thykke, pykke]. 1513Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 168, I grapit graithly the gyll, Every modywart hyll, Bot I mycht pyk thair my fyll Or penny com out. a1625Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 135 A Mill-stone, though it be lifted vp to be picked and beaten..remaineth parcell of the Mill. 1756J. Lloyd in W. Thompson R.N. Advoc. (1757) 51, I have often desired the Grinder not to pick his Mill so often with the sharp Pikes. 1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 369 There is an immense body of ore in sight which can be easily picked and shoveled up. 1883Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal-mining, Pick.., to dress with a pick the sides of a shaft or other excavation. 1895Funk's Stand. Dict., Pick the flint, formerly, to freshen the striking surface of a gun⁓flint to insure ignition: now used figuratively; as, to pick one's flint and try again. 1898J. Macmanus Bend of Road 40 The same lad..can see as far through a millstone as the man picked it. Mod. The ground is so hard, that it will be necessary to pick it.
†b. Of a bird: To pierce or strike with the bill, to peck; of an insect: to puncture. Obs.
1555Eden Decades Pref. (Arb.) 53 Isopes frogges to whom..Iupiter sent a hearon to picke them in the hedes. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. viii. 41 b, Small..wormes, which with their billes and stinges picking the other figs, sodaynely after they are picked, they come to..perfect rypenesse. 1599Minsheu Sp. Dict., Pícar, to picke or pecke... Also to pricke or picke as with a pin or needle. 1604Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 107 Shall a silly bird picke her owne brest to nourish her yong ones? 1645G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 II. 45 Or like the Falcon, knit Vnto the Perch..I picke my Iesses; and assay For Libertie, in everie way.
c. To make or form by picking: in phrase to pick a hole or holes in something. to pick a hole in a person's coat: see hole n. 9.
1648–1898 [see hole n. 9]. 1651C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 6 Saint Hierom was the first that ever pickt a hole in the Scriptures. 1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace xxix. 503 The most envious and observing eyes..could not pick a hole..in any of his words or actions. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 314 We of the civilized countries have still so much of the savage left in us, that we fall..picking holes in characters, manners, and sentiments. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v. Pike, Thou's ollas piking a hole i my cooat. 1849Thackeray Pendennis ix, Not being able to pick a hole in poor Miss Fotheringay's reputation.
2. a. To probe or penetrate with a pointed instrument, or the like (e.g. with the finger-nail, or a bird with its beak, etc.), so as to remove any extraneous matter: e.g. to pick the teeth, the nose, the ear, the nails.
αc1430Lydg. Stans Puer 12 in Babees Bk. 27 Pike not þi nose; & moost in especial..to-fore þi souereyn cratche ne picke þee nouȝt. Ibid. 42 Þi teeþ also at þe table picke with no knyf [v.r. ne pike not with thi knyff]. a1651Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1843) II. 204 Have yee not seene one..sitting..where yee sitt, pyke his nailes, and pull doun his bonnet over his eyes, when..vices were rebooked?
βc1430[see α]. 1607Topsell Hist. Four-f. Beasts (1658) 239 It is good toward night to pick, cleanse, and open his hoofs, with some artificial instrument. 1728Young Love Fame iii. 36 Like the bold bird upon the banks of Nile, That picks the teeth of the dire crocodile. 1768Lady M. Coke Jrnl. 13 Aug. (1889) II. 336 He picked his Nose, which you know is neither graceful or royal. 1784Cowper Task ii. 627 He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet. 1832Marryat N. Forster xxxiv, The Portuguese picked their teeth with their forks.
b. Applied to using the finger-nails to remove or relieve a pimple, scab, or sore place.
1676Wiseman Chirurg. Treat. ii. x. 193 An Herpes exedens..being heated by scratching or picking with their Nails will terminate corrosive. 1854Hooper's Physician's Vade Mecum (ed. 4) 590. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 837 An itching or tingling which induces the patient to pick or scratch the part.
II.
3. a. To clear or cleanse (a thing), with the fingers or the like, of any extraneous or refuse substance, as to pick a fowl (of its feathers), to pick fruit, as currants, strawberries, etc. (of their stalks, calyx leaves, etc.); to cleanse (anything) by removal of refuse, dirt, or unsuitable parts. a crow to pick (properly pluck): see crow n.1 3 b.
αc1325W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 153 Eschuvet flatour [gl. losenjour] ke seet flater, Trop seet ben espeluker [gloss piken]. 1390Gower Conf. III. 162 He satte him thanne doun and pyketh, And wyssh his herbes in the flod. c1440Promp. Parv. 397/2 Pykyn, or clensyn, or cullyn owte the on-clene, purgo. c1440Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 428 Take flesh of a Roo and pyke hit clene. 1530Palsgr. 657/1, I pyke or make clene, je nettoye... I prye you, pyke my combe. Ibid., I pyke saffrone or any floure or corne, whan I sorte one parte of them from another.
β1764E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 154 Gather your gooseberries..pick and bottle them. 1806A. Hunter Culina (ed. 3) 226 Put in three sets of goose giblets well picked. 1865Sat. Rev. 5 Aug. 179/1 To say nothing of all the crows which he finds to pick with his author on his own account. 1871Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. May 273 There was only one thing he could really do properly, and that was, pick birds. 1883Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal-mining, Pick..3. To remove shale, dirt, &c., from coals.
b. to pick a bone, to clear it of all adherent flesh (which in this case is the valuable part); so to pick a carcass, etc.: with various constructions. Hence, fig. to strip or rob a person of all he has, to reduce to starvation or indigence. to have a bone to pick with any one: see bone n. 6 c.
α1483Cath. Angl. 278/1 To Pike A bane, opisare, opicare. 1724Ramsay Vision xxiii, Sum thanes thair tennants pykt and squeist. 1737― Scot. Prov. (1776) 33 He's unco fou in his ain house that canna pike a bane in his neighbour's. 1863Mrs. Toogood Yorks. Dial., You can pike that bone.
β1579[see bone n. 6 c]. 1651Cleveland Poems 37, I wrong the Devil, should I pick their bones. 1676W. Row Contn. Blair's Autobiog. xii. (1848) 462 Pick a bishop to the bones, he'll soon gather flesh and blood again. 1700T. Brown Amusem. Ser. & Com. 33 The Cannibal Man⁓catchers..that..pick the Bones of all the Paupers that fall into their Clutches. 1730Swift Death & Daphne 34 Bare, like a carcase pickt by crows. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 110 [Vultures] pour down upon the carcass; and, in an instant, pick its bones as bare and clean as if they had been scraped by a knife. 1799Southey God's Judgem. Wicked Bishop xix, They have whetted their teeth against the stones, And now they pick the Bishop's bones. 1840Thackeray Catherine i, He could pick the wing of a fowl. 1845A. M. Hall Whiteboy iv. 35 A leg of mutton..fit for the most delicate lady in Ireland ‘to pick’. 1884Rider Haggard Dawn iv, I consider that I have got a bone to pick with Providence about that nose.
c. intr. Sc.
c1550R. Bieston Bayte Fortune A ij, And cast thee forth a bone to pike vpon. 1565[see bone n. 6 c]. 1794Burns Amang the Trees ii, The hungry bike did scrape and pike Til we were wae and weary, O.
†4. To cleanse, make trim or neat, trick out, prank; to deck, adorn; of a bird: to preen (its feathers). Also absol. Obs. (Cf. apyke v.)
αc1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 11191 Þenne come chamberleyns & squiers, Riche robes of mani maners, To folde, to presse, & to pyke [rime strike]. c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 2011 He kembeth hym, he preyneth hym and pyketh. c1440Gesta Rom. lv. 237 (Harl. MS.), She lovide ande pikide, fedde, ande tawȝte this childe. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 189 b/2 Saynt loye..made clene theyr heedes & wysshe them and them that were lowsy and ful of vermyne he hym self wold pyke and make them clene. 1486Bk. St. Albans B vij b, Then after when she [an hawke] begynnyth to penne, and plumyth, and spalchith and pikith her selfe. 1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Eph. v. 27 Though she was disteyned before tyme..he clensed her, he pyked her, and made her perfectly trimme in euery poynt. 1552Elyot Dict., Como, to kembe or decke the busshe:..to trymme, to attyre, to pyke.
arch. [a1643W. Cartwright Ordinary ii. ii. (1651) B vij b, Cembeth thy self, and pyketh now thy self; Sleeketh thy self.]
βc1540tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 243 But the woman..decked and picked herselfe in the hartiest manner. 1611Markham Countr. Content. i. i. (1668) 12 Hounds love naturally to stretch them, and pick themselves in the Sun. 1657J. Watts Dipper Sprinkled 31 A common pond..wherein..Geese, Ducks, do daily duck and pick themselves. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 989 To pick or prain, as a bird doth herself. [a1682Sir T. Browne Tracts ii. Garlands, The ægyptians..beside the bravery of their garlands, had little birds to peck their heads and brows.]
III. 5. a. To detach and take, esp. with the fingers, (anything) from the place in which it grows or adheres, or from that which contains it; to pluck, gather, cull (growing flowers, fruit, etc.); said also of a bird, with its beak. See also 18, 19.
αc1325Gloss W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 156 Autre foyȝe le lyn eslyseȝ flax [gl. pik thi flax]. c1380[see pick away, 16]. 1550Bale Eng. Votaries ii. A iv, Arnold bishop of Metis..at layser made the king to go pike a salet. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., To Pike, to pick or take up, to gather.
β1523Fitzherb. Husb. §23 That the moldywarpe-hilles be spredde, and the styckes cleane pycked out of the medowe. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 89 b, Hole nuttes lately pikked from the trees. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. x. 9 Wherefore on a Bricke wall haue I climb'd into this Garden, to see if I can eate Grasse, or picke a Sallet another while. 1601― All's Well iv. v. 15 Wee may picke a thousand sallets ere wee light on such another hearbe. 1769Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 229 Pick the female barberries clean from the stalks. 1859Tennyson Guinevere 33 As the gardener's hand Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar. 1863Kingsley Water Bab. i. 12 Tom..longed..to get over a gate, and pick buttercups. 1875To pick hops [see hop-picker]. 1881To pick hops [see hop n.1 1] 1896H. Frederic Illumination 117 She picked some of these [pinks] for him.
fig.1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 246 The women there are wise, the men craftie: they will gather loue by thy lookes, and picke thy minde out of thy hands. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ix. 48 And how much honor [would then be] Pickt from the chaffe and ruine of the times, To be new varnisht. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (J.), Hope, that he should out of these his enemies distresses pick some fit occasion of advantage. a1613Overbury A Wife, etc. (1638) 130 He picks a living out of others gaines. 1859Tennyson Enid 1751 Full seldom doth a man repent, or use Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch Of blood and custom wholly out of him.
†b. fig. To ‘gather’ or ‘draw’ with the mind; to infer, deduce, make out. Obs.
1565J. Calfhill Answ. Treat. Crosse (Parker Soc.) 104 And truly, if we mark the place itself, much better doctrine may be pyked of it, than to prefigurate I wot not what manner of Cross unto us. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 100 Trust me sweete, Out of this silence yet, I pickt a welcome. 1593― Lucr. 100 But she that never coped with stranger eyes, Could pick no meaning from their parling looks. 1621Quarles Div. Poems, Esther (1717) 104 'Twas not the sharpness of thy wandring eye, (Great King Assuerus) to pick Majesty From out the sadness of a Captive face.
c. Phr. pick your own, used attrib. (usu. hyphened) and absol. of a marketing system at a farm, orchard, or the like, where customers gather the produce themselves instead of being served by the seller. Abbrev. p-y-o, PYO s.v. P III.
1969Agriculture May 221 In Kent there is a growing tendency for strawberry growers with roadside plots to encourage ‘pick your own’ selling. 1969Farm Q. Harvest 64/3 He sold wholesale strawberries for 16 years before deciding to go pick-your-own exclusively. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 5/1 Chudleigh's is a ‘pick your own’ farm and hundreds of families jump into their cars every weekend in the fall to pick their own apples. 1987Daily Tel. 21 Feb. 14/1 All manner of exotic crops..and unlikely livestock..have been proposed [as alternative land uses] as well as the more conventional: forestry, food processing and ‘Pick Your Own’.
6. a. Of birds, and some beasts: To take up (grains or small bits of food) with bill or teeth; also, of persons, to bite or eat in small bits or delicately; colloq. to eat. Cf. peck v.1 4.
1430–40Lydg. Bochas ix. i. (1558) 20 b, Milke white doues which that piked greine. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 717 Lay before her flies, or little wormes, which by their crauling will stir vp the bird to picke them. 1728Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. iv. iv, I'd fain pick a bit with you. 1786Capt. T. Morris Songs, Lyra Urban. (1848) I. 80–2 (Farmer), I hope from their budget they'll pick out a song, While I'll pick a little more dinner. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxv, ‘I think, young woman’, said Mrs. Gamp,..‘that I could pick a little bit of pickled salmon’. 1862Borrow Wild Wales xlviii. (1901) 154/1 A few miserable sheep picking the wretched herbage. 1879Stevenson Trav. Cevennes 167, I picked a meal in fear and trembling. 1893― Catriona 22 We'll pick a bit of dinner.
b. intr. To eat with pecking or small bites; of a person, ‘to eat slowly and by small morsels’ (J.), to eat fastidiously or daintily; slang or colloq. to take food, to eat. Cf. peck v.1 4.
1584Cogan Haven Health ccxiii. (1636) 222 For (as it is said) children and chicken, would bee alwayes picking. 1648–78Hexham, Picken als de vogels, to Pick as Birds doe. 1693Dryden Persius' Sat. iii. 231 Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy Pallat sore? 1786Capt. T. Morris Songs, Lyra Urban. (1848) I. 80–82 (Farmer) For me I protest, if it wasn't for shame, I could pick till to-morrow at dinner. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. I. 178 Rather picking than eating any thing, because she affected ill health. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped iii 18, I could never do mair than pyke at food. 1895B. M. Croker Village Tales (1896) 74 The milch goats were browsing, and the poultry picking about.
IV.
7. a. To choose out, select carefully, cull; cf. pick out, 19 b; colloq. phr. to pick them: in emphatic contexts, to make a wise choice, spec. in personal relationships (freq. ironical). Also in to pick one's men, pick one's words, etc.
α1390Gower Conf. I. 296 Rathere, if it mihte hir like, The beste wordes wolde I pike. Ibid. II. 90 Hou that men schal the wordes pike After the forme of eloquence. a1586Sidney Arcadia iii. (1622) 402 Let us pike our good from out much bad. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. l. 505 He either wholly omitted Nowel's sayings..[or] here and there piked what he thought good. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Pike, v., to pick, to select, to chuse. Dut. picken.
β1568Grafton Chron. I. 188 [They] purged the olde and corrupt lawes, and picked out of them a certain..most profitable for the commons. 1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. I.) 243 From thence the best Poets ordinarily pick their comparisons to pourtraite the rarest beauties. 1689I. Mather in Andros Tracts II. 6 They have caused Juries to be pick'd of Men who are not of the Vicinity. 1735Pope Ep. Lady 273 Heav'n..Picks from each sex, to make the Fav'rite blest, Your love of Pleasure, our desire of Rest. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. i. (1869) 29 You can pick your society no where but in London. 1859Tennyson Enid 1028 Geraint, dismounting, pick'd the lance That pleased him best. 1897Evesham Jrnl. 25 Sept. (E.D.D.), This player was not picked at the committee meeting. 1945A. Marshall in Coast to Coast 1944 84 He greeted Olive cheerfully, then turned to me with simulated surprise. ‘Well, you can certainly pick 'em,’ he said. 1953A. Christie Pocket Full of Rye x. 62 My stepmother was there... The old boy certainly knew how to pick them. 1966H. Waugh Pure Poison (1967) ii. 11 Fred, glancing..to the young face of his daughter-in-law to be, had to admit that Larry could pick 'em. 1973G. Scott Water Horse (1974) vii. 44 An art student, Polly? You do pick them, don't you. 1976P. Henissart Winter Quarry xv. 150 ‘Christ, she really picks them,’ muttered McGuire. ‘Does she know who he is?’ 1978L. Meynell Papersnake iii. 53 Baa-Lamb came home..at the very agreeable odds of twelve to one... ‘What did I tell you, cobber?.. If you can pick 'em, you can pick 'em.’
b. Phr. to pick one's way, steps: to choose a way carefully through dirty or dangerous ground, in order to avoid its difficulties, etc.
1714Gay Trivia i. 239 Deep through a miry lane she pick'd her way, Above her ancle rose the chalky clay. 1781Crabbe Library 294 While judgment slowly picks his sober way. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop lxii, A treacherous place to pick one's steps in. 1849Clough Dipsychus ii. iv. 93 The dashing stream Stays not to pick his steps among the rocks. 1883F. M. Peard Contrad. xxxii, She..picked her way between the heather and bracken.
†c. To search through (a place). Obs. rare.
1589Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 38, I picke hell, you shall not find such reasons.
d. intr. To search with some selection.
1824S. E. Ferrier Inher. xli, A vast collection of letters,..amongst which she picked for some time..for the missive in question. 1897Daily News 23 Dec. 7/1 A bran tub..from which they will pick for a present.
e. to pick and choose (or † cull), to select fastidiously or nicely. Often absol. or intr.
αc1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 6032 Noght but golde and stonys Chose and piked for the nonys.
β1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. vii. 80 [They] are 300..chosen and picked out of the most..excellent archers amongst the Ianissaries. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 37 So little was the resistance he found as he had the liberty to pick and choose. 1666W. Boghurst Loimographia (1894) 90 Out of which you may pick and choose which you like best. 1705Addison Prol. to Steele's Tend. Husb. 17 Our Modern Wits are forc'd to pick and cull, And here and there by Chance glean up a Fool. 1713Steele Guardian No. 171 ⁋3, I shall always pick and cull the Pantry for him. 1718Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell iii. lxvi. 351 If Men were at Liberty to pick and chuse what they please in the Offices of the Church. 1862Goulburn Pers. Relig. iv. v. (1873) 290 Picking and choosing the words which are used. Mod. Take them as they come: you must not pick and choose.
f. ellipt. for to pick one's way.
1865R. D. Blackmore Cradock Nowell (1866) I. xvi. 153 Hogstaff tottered along before him, picking uneasily over the stones. 1878Hardy Ret. Native I. iii. 66 The track is rough, but if you've got a light your horses may pick along wi' care. 1961‘G. Holden’ Deadlier than Male xiv. 102 This time the search took twice as long, cutting down on his extra reading, for he had to pick through several columns of one- and two-line social notes in each issue.
g. trans. To guess, deduce; to predict. Austral. and N.Z. colloq.
c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 128 I'm picking we'll soon have a row. 1943N. Marsh Colour Scheme vi. 100 There's a bit of a shelf above the cliff... I picked that was where he'd go. 1959D. Niland Big Smoke vi. 145 He looked up at the boy with a pleased, questioning expression. ‘I pick it right?’
8. a. To seek and find an occasion of; as to pick a quarrel with († against, at, to, unto) a person, † also formerly to pick fault, to pick (an) occasion of (offence, etc.) or pick occasion to do (something), etc.
αc1449Paston Lett. I. 87 The seyde parsone..hathe pekyd a qwarell to on Mastyr Recheforthe. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. x. (Fox & Wolf) xxix, Ane wickit man..pykis at thame all quarrellis that he can. 1513More Rich. III (1883) 17 In his presence they piked a quarrell to the Lorde Richard Graye. 1530Palsgr. 657/1, I pyke a quarell, or fynde maters to fall out with one for. 1540R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. iii. vi. (1541) 138 b, They medle with other folkes busines..exhort and giue preceptes, rebuke and correcte, pyke fautes. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 156 b, From whence doth he pike this quarell? 1584Hudson Du Bartas' Judith iv, Yet some will quarrell pike, And common bruit will deem them all alike.
βa1529Skelton Bowge of Courte 314 Fyrste pycke a quarell, and fall oute with hym then. 1530Palsgr. 656/2, I pycke no mater, or I pycke no quarrell to one. c1555Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (Camden) 270 Then is there a causeless quarrel picked against the Popes. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 811 Neyther the Lion, nor the Bore shall picke any matter at anye thing here spoken. 1599Life Sir T. More in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. (1853) II. 132 Every day some quarrelling matter or other was pickt against him. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iii. ii. 111, I sall quit you with gud leue, as I may pick occasion. 1610Willet Hexapla Dan. 182 They..picke what matter they can against him. 1623Laud in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. III. 242 They..have picked all the occacions they could to detract from mee. 1674Allen Danger Enthusiasm 29 [They] raised Cavils and pickt Quarrels against it. 1697J. Sergeant Solid Philos. 367 He will..doubtless, pick new Quarrels at the Definition. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. lvii. 581 These did too often (where they could pick occasion) use rigor towards such as more sincerely and earnestly served God. 1785Jefferson Corr. Wks. 1859 I. 449 The question is..with whom the Emperor will pick the next quarrel. 1894Hall Caine Manxman v. xiv. 325 Some of the men began to pick quarrels.
†b. Phrase. to pick a thank (thanks) of (with) (a person): to curry favour with, as by sycophancy or tale-bearing; also absol., to play the sycophant or tale-bearer. Cf. pickthank.
αc1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3048 A þank to pike, His lordys wil and witte he iustifieth. 1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 2 Pet. 17 False prophetes..whiche eyther to pyke a thanke at y⊇ princes hande or elles..for hatred of other, prophecied the thinge, whiche the spirite of God spake not. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. Pref. 5 b, Manye of those wryters seke to pike a thanke.
β1560Pilkington Expos. Aggeus (1562) 347 Thinkinge thereby too picke a thanke, and get a rewarde of David. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 55 Least I should seeme either to picke a thanke with men, or a quarel with women. 1600Holland Livy vi. xxvi. 235, I will not..pick my selfe a privat thanke for a publike benefit. 1611Cotgr., Escornifler,..to pick a thanke or carry tales for victuals. 1627Sanderson Serm., Ad Mag. ii. (1657) 134 Doeg to pick a thank with his Master,..told tales of David and Abimelech. a1648Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) 481 Some..that would now perchance pick them thank without desert. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 989 To pick thanks, sycophantari.
†c. to pick (acquaintance or chat with): to seek occasion of, cultivate, make gradually. Obs.
1720De Foe Capt. Singleton xviii, The doctor was made the first to pick acquaintance. 1770J. Adams Diary 19 Aug., Mr. Royal Tyler began to pick chat with me.
V.
9. a. To rob, plunder (a person or place); to rifle the contents of (anything); † to take by robbery, to steal (goods, etc.). Now only in phr. to pick a person's pocket or purse, also fig., his brains.
αc1300Song of Husbandman 25 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 150 Thus me pileth the pore and pyketh ful clene. 1301[see piker1 1]. c1325Song of Yesterday 178 He [Death] comeþ so baldely, to pike his pray. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2467 Phillis, [He] pikid of hire al the good he myghte. 1390Gower Conf. II. 367 He..thoghte he wolde be som weie The tresor pyke and stele aweie. c1400Destr. Troy 1371 The Grekes..Prayen and pyken mony priuey chambur. 1401Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 66 Ther we piken but seely pans Thi secte pikith poundis. c1460Towneley Myst. xxviii. 335 Thi close [clothes] so can [= gan] thai fro the pyke. a14765th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 530/1 If ony be founde..pikeyng purses or other smale thynges. 1530Lyndesay Test. Pap. 678, I did persaue, quhen preuelye ȝe did pyke Ane chekin frome ane hen, vnder ane dyke. 1612Jas. I in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. III. 106 To cause youre Officers..pyke shillings from poore Skottismen. [1865G. Macdonald A. Forbes 19 An' min' and no pyke the things i' the chop (= shop).]
β1531Tindale Expos. 1 John (1537) 8 He were a foole which wolde trust hym..that hath pycked his purse before his face. 1555W. Watreman Fardle of Facions App. 338 Lette him that shall haue picqued either Golde or Siluer paye the double. 1591Greene Maidens Dreame x, Delaying law, that picks the client's purse. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 94 Shall I not take mine ease at mine Inne, but I shall haue my Pocket pick'd? 1612J. Taylor (Water P.) Trav. Wks. (1872) 35 One of them held the good wife with a tale, the whilst another was picking her chest. 1727Gay Begg. Op. i. vi, He hath as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman. 1838Lytton Alice vii. v, His success in picking the brain of Mr. Onslow of a secret encouraged him. 1879Spurgeon Serm. XXV. 112 A person may very readily pick my pocket of my purse. 1885T. A. Guthrie Tinted Venus 89 Want to pick my brains?
b. intr. or absol. In later use felt as a kind of euphemism for: To practise petty theft, to pick up ‘unconsidered trifles’, to appropriate small things or portions of things such as it is thought will not be noticed; to pilfer, to filch. Chiefly in phr. pick and steal, familiar from the Church Catechism, and now app. associated with sense 5.
α1390Gower Conf. II. 351 This proverbe is evere newe, That stronge lokes maken trewe Of hem that wolden stele and pyke [v.r. pile]. 1559Mirr. Mag., Owen Glendour iii, The suttle Fox doth pyke.
β1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Catech., To kepe my handes from picking and stealing. 1552Latimer Rem. (Parker Soc.) 87 Many folks..exhort themselves to do wickedly, to steal, to pick, and to do all lewdness. 1552Huloet, Picke craftelye, Manticulor [printed Mantiscinor]. [1565–73Cooper, Mantiscinor, aris, to steale craftily.]
10. To open (a lock) with a pointed instrument, a skeleton key, or the like; to open clandestinely. (Usually with implication of intended robbery.)
1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 81 She mynded..To picke the..locke. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 576 Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast, Yet love breaks through and picks them all at last. 1757R. Lloyd Ep. Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 101 If chests he breaks, if locks he picks. 1833Marryat P. Simple xxi, O'Brien pulled out his picklocks to pick it. 1853C. Brontë Villette xiv, The lock of resolution which neither Time nor Temptation has..picked. 1881Young Every Man his own Mechanic §1494 When a key is lost, and the door happens to be locked, a smith will pick it, as it is technically called, with a piece of bent wire.
transf.1883D. H. Wheeler By-ways Lit. viii. 150 (Funk) Cassius..picks Brutus open as easily as he would an oyster.
VI.
11. a. To separate by picking, to pull or comb asunder: usually with defining adv. or phrase: as pick to pieces (also fig.); but simply in pick oakum, pick cotton or pick wool.
1536wulpiker [see picker1 1 f]. 1538Elyot Lat. Dict., Carminarii, they that do pike [ed. 1545 picke] or make clene wulle, or carde. 1565–78Cooper Thesaurus, Carminatio, the picking or carding of wull..He or she that picketh or cardeth wull. 1683in New Mills Cloth Manuf. (S.H.S.) 55 For piking scribbling and oyll. 1690Child Disc. Trade (1694) 105 The girls may be employed in mending the clothes of the aged... The boys in picking okam. 1733P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 23 Easy Labour at first, such as picking of Wool or Cotton, teasing of Ockam. 1859Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. II. iv. 83 Power of picking what I say to pieces. 1869Trollope He Knew, etc. lxxxi. (1878) 449 They'll pick you to pieces a little among themselves. 1874Punch 14 Mar. 110/1 Picking oakum in penal servitude.
b. intr. for pass. To admit of being picked.
1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 62 The yarn..will pick into oakum.
12. To pluck the strings of a musical instrument, as the banjo. U.S.
1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3) s.v., In the South, to pick the banjo or guitar, means to play upon these instruments. Comp. the French pincer. 1891Century Mag. Nov. 52 He could pick the banjo in a way no one had ever heard it picked before. 1901Munsey's Mag. XXIV. 485/1 The strings [of a Polynesian instrument] are strummed, rather than picked.
13. Short for pick out, 19 g.
1892Cath. News 23 Jan. 3/2 Picturesque green sashes, picked with black crape.
VII. Intransitive uses with prepositions.
14. to pick at ― :
a. To aim at picking, make a motion to pick (in various prec. senses).
1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xlii. 131 This byrde sawe hymselfe so well fethered..he began to waxe prowde, and.. pycked and spurred at them. 1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. 17 Some curious head..may pick at a Moate, and ask me two or three questions out of this Narration. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 143 Muscular tremors, picking at the bed⁓clothes..appear in bad cases [of scarlatina].
b. fig. To find fault with, gird at, nag at; to carp or cavil at. Now only dial., U.S., and Austral.
a1670Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 9 The second thing calld culpable in him, but was not, was pick'd at by the cross humours of some in the end of Q. Elizabeth's reign. 1786Jefferson Writ. (1859) I. 605 The Emperor, the Empress, and the Venetians seem all to be picking at the Turks. 1822Galt Provost xxiii, The rising generation began to pick and dab at him. 1876Whitby Gloss., Pick at, v. to quarrel with. ‘They're always picking at teean t'other’, at each other. 1884Roe Nat. Ser. Story ii, When the papers have nothing else to find fault with, they pick at West Point. 1896Cosmopolitan XX. 430/2 I'm always being picked at. I wish I was dead. 1916C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke 127 Pick at, to chaff; to annoy. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang. 54 Pick at, to blame, chaff, irritate.
15. to pick on, pick upon ― : = prec. b; also, to single out for attention or adverse criticism; to victimize.
c1370Robert Cicyle 269 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1878) 215/2 Alle men on him gon pike, For he rod oþer vnlike. 1875W. D. Parish Dict. Sussex Dial. 87 They always pick upon my boy coming home from school. 1888in Farmer Americanisms (1889) 419/1 Joseph White..slept for five days and nights, and then jawed his wife for waking him up. He said she was always picking on him when she saw him taking comfort. 1890M. E. Wilkins Mod. Dragon in Humble Romance, etc. (1891) 100, I don't see..what makes you girls for ever pick on each other. 1899B. W. Green Virginia Word-bk., Pick upon, to annoy; the other boys always pick upon this one. c1910D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 26 You always pick on the Gordons—you're always on to us—! 1919Wodehouse Coming of Bill (1920) ii. iii. 141 That wouldn't make no difference.—She'd pick on me just the same. 1929J. Buchan Courts of Morning iii. ii. 331 Looks as if you folk had been picking on my poor little country. 1930J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement vi. 297 They begin picking on her and she stands up for herself. 1930S. Jepson I met Murder ii. 27 Have you any idea why the Inspector should have picked on you first? 1947‘N. Shute’ Chequer Board 73 Last night they was picking on the coloured boys—saying nasty things about niggers in their hearing. 1959G. Freeman Jack would be Gent. 140 Don't keep picking on him, please, Mum. 1961[see back n.1 23 d]. 1975Times 15/4 Why pick on the present Government? Has any government..in the past 30 years ever..done anything to encourage that aim?
VIII. In combination with adverbs.
16. pick away : see senses 1 and 5, and away.
c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 103 Þe fendis may..pike awey þe seed. 1618R. Brathwait Descr. Death viii, Fleshie He was, but it is pickt away. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 508 When the membrane had been picked away the optic thalami could be made out.
17. pick in.
a. To work in or fill in, in a painting or drawing.
1836[see pick n.3 6]. 1859Sala Gaslight & D. ii. 24 Then the shadows are ‘picked in’ by assistants.
b. dial. To pick or take hold of and bring in.
1891Quiller Couch Noughts & Crosses 251 My landlady was out in the garden, ‘picking in’ her week's washing from the thorn hedge. 1904Daily Chron. 20 June 3/4 The man..who gets his boat broadside across the lock's entrance, and is superciliously ‘picked’ in by the..assistant.
18. pick off.
a. See sense 5 and off.
13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1466 Þay prudly hade piked of pom-garnades. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 19 These..just pick'd off from a Taylor's Shop-board. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 588 When the scales are picked off, the apertures of the hair-sacs are seen to be dilated.
b. To shoot with deliberate selection and aim, to shoot one by one. Also fig.
1810Vandeleur's Lett. 1 Nov. (1894) 17 Our men are capital shots. I could see them pick the fellows off one at a time just as day began to appear. 1817Parl. Deb. 316 The corps of political riflemen..employed in picking off place after place, however important or serviceable. 1885Scribner's Mag. XXX. 396/1 Partisan rangers..picking off an English officer with as little ruth as they felt in shooting a stag.
c. Baseball. To put out (a runner) at a base.
1948Sun (Baltimore) 1 Dec. 17/4 The play in question came when Bobby Feller, Cleveland pitcher, whirled and threw to Manager Lou Boudreau in an effort to pick off Masi, Boston catcher. 1974Spartanburg (S. Carolina) Herald 23 Apr. a6/4 Dancy was picked off by catcher Luis Rosado as he inexcusably wandered too far off third.
19. pick out.
a. To extract by picking (senses 1, 2, 5); to dig out, peck out. Also fig. In quot. 1843, to undo by extracting the stitches one by one.
αc1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 401 Ȝif þin iȝe sclaundre þee, pyke it out. c1420Pallad. on Husb. iii. 28 Ye must..diligently clodde it, pyke out stones. 1530Palsgr. 657/1, I pyke out, as a ravyn dothe a deed beestes eye. 1591Harington Orl. Fur. Pref., The like..Allegories I could pike out of other Poeticall fictions. 1861Ramsay Remin. Ser. ii. 74 Corbies winna pike out corbies' een.
β1388Wyclif Prov. xxx. 17 Crowis of the stronde picke [1382 pecken] out thilke iȝe, that scorneth the fadir. 1601Shakes. All's Well ii. iii. 276 Go too sir, you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernell out of a Pomgranat. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 824 They shewed them the vse..to pick out thornes in their feet. 1725B. Higgons Rem. Burnet Hist. Wks. 1736 II. ii. 120 To breed up young Presbyterians with the Money of the Church of England, to pick out her Eyes. a1756E. Haywood New Present (1771) 64 Pick the mussels out from the shells. 1843Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 246 Picking out her sewing has been such sorrowful work. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 555 Small plugs of horny epidermis can be picked out, leaving pits behind.
b. To select, to choose out with care or deliberation; in recent use said also of natural agents, as diseases.
1530Palsgr. 657/1, I can pyke out the best and I were blyndefelde. 1538Starkey England i. iv. 122 The most general thyngys..wych among infynyte other, I haue pykyd out. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 403 Could the World picke thee out three such Enemyes againe? 1712Addison Spect. No. 291 ⁋10 He then bid him pick out the Chaff from among the Corn. a1758Ramsay Fables xvii. 20 Take the canniest gate to ease, And pike out joys by twas and threes. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) iv. ii. 316 A guide..can almost always pick out at a glance the most practicable line of assault. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 710 These fibres in the peripheral nerves which when picked out by disease give rise to incoordination of movement.
†c. To extract or gain with effort, to acquire; = pick up, 21 c. Obs.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 174 The good husband by cherishing of them [Bees], picketh out many times a good peece of his liuing. 1607Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe ii. Wks. 1873 II. 295, I picke out a poore liuing amongst em: and I am thankefull for it.
d. To distinguish from surrounding objects, etc., with the senses.
1552Latimer Rem. (Parker Soc.) 30 He will not forget us, for he seeth us in every corner; he can pick us out, when it is his will and pleasure. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. Ind. i. 24 Why Belman is as good as he my Lord, He..twice to day pick'd out the dullest sent. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xv, Now and then Bell picked out the call of a thrush or a blackbird. 1873― Pr. Thule i, An eye accustomed to pick out objects far at sea.
e. To make out or gather (sense or meaning); to piece out and ascertain (facts) by combining separate fragments or items of information.
1540R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) A iij, Because euerye body shall picke out the ways of liuing out of these mens authoritie. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. (Arb.) 198 We dissemble againe..when we speake by way of riddle (Enigma) of which the sence can hardly be picked out. 1607Beaumont Woman Hater i. iii, He brings me informations, pick'd out of broken words, in men's common talk. 1678Bunyan Pilgr. (ed. 2) (1847) 129 Hopeful..called to Christian (for he was learned) to see if he could pick out the meaning..‘Remember Lot's Wife.’ 1882M. Arnold Speech at Eton in Irish Ess. 185 Goethe..did not know Greek well and had to pick out its meaning by the help of a Latin translation.
f. To identify the notes of (a tune) and so play it by ear.
1893Stevenson Catriona v. 55 She picked it out upon the keyboard, and..enriched the same with well-sounding chords. 1901H. Harland Com. & Errors 97 If I were to pick it out for you on the piano, you would scoff at it.
g. To deck out, to adorn; now spec. to lighten or relieve the ground colour of (anything) by lines or spots of a contrasted colour following the outlines, mouldings, etc.
c1450Mirour Saluacioun 621 Thay had graces of whilk thaire pride thai myght pike out. 1794W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 193 The picking out to a carriage is the ornamenting the ground with various contrasted colours, which is to lighten the appearance, and shew the mouldings to advantage. 1844Disraeli Coningsby viii. v, The ceiling..was richly gilt and picked out in violet. 1882Q. Rev. Jan. 257 A few are ‘picked out’, as a coach painter might say, with bright scarlet. 1897Daily News 7 Jan. 2/2 Every arch and capital..was outlined, and as the expression is ‘picked out’ by holly, ivy, laurustinus, &c.
20. pick over. To sort; to select the best from (a group or collection); to pick off dead flowers from.
1917Dialect Notes IV. 397 She is picking over blackberries. 1924A. D. Sedgwick Little French Girl i. 6 She..picked over the herbs that were to be dried for tisane. 1946D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist iii. 40 The supplies were picked over and over. One necessity after another was thrown away, as the owner remembered that he might have to carry it, if the oxen died. 1971Vogue Dec. 48/3 The geraniums had flowered once, and needed to be picked over to induce a second flowering. 1972D. Westheimer Over Edge (1974) ii. 20 Karen..could spend hours happily picking over rejects in a surplus store. 1973E. Page Fortnight by Sea i. 8, I don't think there'll be any strawberries left... The beds were picked over pretty thoroughly a couple of days ago. 1978Lancashire Life Apr. 78/2 Though the summer suns are not yet exactly at the glowing stage, wise girls will buy their summer clothes now, rather than wait till the best things have been picked over.
21. pick up.
a. To break up (ground) with a pick; to extract from the ground by picking; to take up.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 104 And summe, to plese perkyn, pykeden [B. vi. 113 piked] vp þe weodes. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 37 A pike for to pike them [fitchis] vp handsom to drie. 1894Times 21 May 4/4 A gang of men was sent..to pick up and relay the part of Onslow-gardens.
b. To take up with the fingers or beak; to lay hold of and take up (esp. a small object) from the ground or any low position; to lift lightly, smartly, or neatly; in Knitting, to take up (stitches) with a knitting-needle or wire. to pick oneself up, to recover oneself smartly from a fall, etc. Also spec. (a) trans. to gather (a shorn fleece) from the floor of the shearing shed, carry it to a table, and throw it out flat so that it can be skirted, rolled, and classed, also absol. (Austral. and N.Z.). (b) absol. in game-shooting, to make a retrieval, esp. to collect unretrieved game after a shooting party.
c1325Poem Times Edw. II 237 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 334 He doth the wif sethe a chapoun and piece beof,..The best he piketh up himself, and maketh his mawe touht. a1704Locke (J.), The acorns he picked up under an oak in the wood. 1711Budgell Spect. No. 77 ⁋1 Will. had picked up a small Pebble. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 338 Its common food should be mixed with ants, so that when the bird goes to pick the ants it may pick up some of that also. 1809Roland Fencing 99 Pick up his foil and deliver it politely to him. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. ii, Tom picked himself up, and settled himself on his bench again. 1880M. E. Braddon Just as I am xxi, Picks up her feet nicely, doesn't she? 1880Plain Hints Needlework 32 Pick up the side loops for right-hand gusset, cast on the same number of loops as were on the needle before the heel began to be turned (28), and pick up the loops for the left-hand gusset. 1898Spectator 3 Dec. 837 The broken cable of 1865 was picked up and repaired.
(a)1862J. G. Walker Jrnl. 10 Nov. (typescript) 24 My job at first was picking up fleeces. 1926J. Devanny Butcher Shop 11 The naked feet of the brown women ‘picking up’ from the shining greasy floor. 1940F. Sargeson Man & Wife (1944) 47 It was early summer, shearing time. Tom and me went into the country and we got a job picking up fleeces in a big shed. 1967J. Morrison in Coast to Coast 1965–66 157 He'd been away picking-up in the shearing sheds.
(b)1888W. B. Leffingwell Wild Fowl Shooting xxxvi. 364 After the pup has gotten to understand your orders of picking up, and bringing the glove to you from short distances, throw it farther. 1897Encycl. Sport I. 442/1 The keeper..must be careful to judge accurately when to start the next drive, after one is over, so as to give reasonable time for picking up. 1976Shooting Times & Country Mag. 16–22 Dec. 20/2 My immediate neighbours..did help pick up and I am happy to say the count, if nothing else, was quite gratifying.
c. To acquire, attain, gain, earn, collect, gather, or get possession of as chance or opportunity offers; to come upon and possess oneself of; to make (a livelihood) by occasional opportunity.
1513Douglas æneis iii. Prol. 35 This text is full of storyis euery deill, Realmes and landis, quharof I haue na feill..To pike thame wp perchance ȝour eene suld reill. 1608Shakes. Per. iv. ii. 36 If in our youths we could pick up some pretty estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our doors hatched. 1693J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 102 This ridiculous fable which Plato had pick'd up. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. i. 167 By this Trade the Freemen of Malacca pick up a good livelihood. 1711Addison Spect. No. 159 ⁋1 When I was at Grand Cairo, I picked up several Oriental Manuscripts. 1750H. Walpole Let. to Mann 10 Jan., If you can pick me up any fragments of old painted glass..I shall be excessively obliged to you. 1788Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 209 Exhibiting them in every capital town, he picked up some money. 1843Prescott Mexico (1850) I. 227 During his residence in Cuba [he] had picked up some acquaintance with the Castilian. 1860Reade Cloister & H. lv, He spoke but little..but listened to pick up their characters. 1884G. Allen Philistia I. 80, I picked it up for a song. 1886J. R. Rees Pleas. Bk.-Worm i, ‘I picked it up’ has become a recognised phrase in all kinds of collecting manias. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars ii. 84 There were many ways of picking up a livelihood by these gentlemen. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 673 The white child..is not so quick in picking up parlour tricks.
d. To seize, snap up, capture (a vessel), as on a cruise; to capture in detail. Now rare.
1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 110 The Christian Corsairs pick up several of them [vessels] now and then. 1779F. Hervey Nav. Hist. II. 148 Blake was very active in the Channel, in picking up their merchantmen. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §265 A fishing boat, which..had been picked up by the French for the sake of intelligence. 1885U. S. Grant Personal Mem. xxii. I. 309 He had..scattered the little army..so that the most of it could be picked up in detail.
e. To take (a person or thing overtaken or fallen in with) along with one, into one's company, or into a vessel or vehicle; also said of a vehicle, a ship, etc.; spec. to form an acquaintance with (a person) casually or informally, esp. with the intention of having a sexual relationship.
1698Vanbrugh Prov. Wife iv. iii, So—now, Mr. Constable, shall you and I go pick up a whore together? 1698J. Collier Short View Immorality Eng. Stage vi. 238 Nothing being more common than to see Beauty surpriz'd, Women debauch'd, and Wenches Pick'd up at these Diversions. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5474/4 Whoever has pickt her [a lost bitch] up,..shall receive 10s. Reward. 1734Select Trials 1720–1724 59/1 The Prosecutor pick'd me up and went with me to my Lodgings..where he would have lain with me. 1785Cowper Let. 4 June in Corr. (1904) II. 325 He was seen by Mr. Shepherd..leading a female companion into a wood.., whom he saw him pick up as he went. 1812J. H. Vaux Vocab. Flash Lang. in Mem. (1964) 257 To pick up a cull, is a term used by blowers in their vocation of street-walking. 1820J. W. Croker Diary 10 Mar., Lord Yarmouth..came over to pick me up on our way to town. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. vi. 200 Picked up in their boats by a vessel homeward bound. 1839W. Chambers Tour Belgium 73/1 One of the many omnibusses which drive round to pick up passengers from the hotels. 1840Marryat Poor Jack xiii, He was picked up by a gentleman..in a wherry, holding on to the wool of a sheep which..was swimming. 1891T. Hardy Tess (1900) 139/1 To walk to the first station onward, and let the train pick him up there. 1893G. B. Shaw Widowers' Houses i. viii. 29 ‘I have made the acquaintance of’—or you may say ‘picked up’, or ‘come across’, if you think that would suit your friend's style better. 1921Sat. Even. Post 1 Oct. 18/2 You are right in thinking there must be something wrong with girls who try to ‘pick up’ strange men as no girl with self respect would do such a thing. 1932E. Bowen To North iv. 34 She wished she had not picked Markie up in the train and given him her address. 1933Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Mar. 223/3 One evening Sam ‘picks up’ a young woman at an open-air concert. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xvii. 135 The wife of one of the officers..formed the habit of picking up rich gentlemen in department stores. 1961J. Dos Passos Midcentury 94 Eileen got to dancing..and trying to pick up strange men. 1975Evening Standard 14 May 5/3 It is not difficult to learn..that it is possible to obtain money, food or a bed for the night by being ‘picked up’. 1976D. Marlowe Nightshade xii. 143 Who was that old man?.. He was trying to pick you up.
f. trans. and intr. To steal, rob, pilfer; to cheat, swindle. slang.
c1770R. King Frauds of London Detected 39 [Highwaymen] have various schemes for carrying on their business, such as seeing ostlers, bribing landlords, on the road, for intelligence of who is worth picking up. 1829H. Widowson Pres. State Van Diemen's Land 73 There are always a number of loose characters lurking about, on the look-out for strangers, to ‘pick them up’, as they term it, which, in other words, means to rob them. a1876E. Leigh Gloss. Words Dial. Cheshire (1877) 154 Picking up, a term for picking a pocket. 1903Mark of Broad Arrow vii. 108 Within twenty-four hours of that man's release the three prison-made thieves were looking round the town to see what they could ‘pick up’—in plain language, to see what they could thieve. 1928Detective Fiction Weekly 8 Sept. 565/2 Gentleman George..would mark down his traveler, knowing him to be in possession of jewelry or other valuables, and tirelessly follow him until the opportunity arose to ‘pick-up’ his all-important bag.
g. trans. To find fault with, call to account; to detect (a person) in a mistake; to show up. colloq.
1846S. F. Smith Theatr. Apprenticeship 149 The bystanders..were crowding around the table in great numbers to see the fun—all considering me most undoubtedly ‘picked up’. 1878B. Harte in Scribner's Monthly Dec. 184/1 When we were coming down the valley you picked me up twice..contradicted me, that's what I mean. 1922Daily Mail 5 Dec. 11, I am picked up for saying that the initiative in the Steamer case should have come from the stewards.
h. In Cricket, to succeed in hitting (a ball, esp. one that pitches close to the ground).
1851J. Pycroft Cricket Field vii. 153 If you reach far enough, even a shooter may be picked up. 1862― Cricket Tutor 8 The old bat used to be heavy at the point—very requisite for picking up a Grounder. 1959Times 29 May 4/1 He could not have picked up the ball off his legs so crisply.
i. To come upon, find (a path, etc.), esp. to recover, regain (a track, trail, etc. lost or departed from); to catch sight of (a light, signal, etc.); succeed in seeing, hearing, detecting, receiving, etc., by means of an appropriate instrument or apparatus. to pick up a wind: see quot. 1867. to pick up the range (of a rifle or gun).
1857Dufferin Lett. High Lat. (ed. 3) 210 It was now time to run down West and pick up the land. 1860Merc. Marine Mag. VII. 30 No stranger should attempt to pick up the..Light in thick weather, nor enter the port at night. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Pick up a wind,..to run from one trade or prevalent wind to another, with as little intervening calm as possible. 1876G. F. Chambers Astron. 658 Suppose that the observer suddenly picks up an unknown comet. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 258/1 The condenser..framed with the view of picking up the greatest number of rays from the source of light. 1880Sutherland Tales Goldfields 58 He was fortunate enough to pick up the track. 1888Electrician 2 Nov. 833/1 For researches of this description it is necessary to employ as sensitive an instrument as it is possible to obtain, to pick up, so to speak, such minute currents. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 209 The advance guard could..pick up the trail on more favourable ground. 1900Westm. Gaz. 29 June 10/1 If the fireman as well as the driver had been picking up the Slough signals there would have been no accident. 1901Scotsman 28 Feb. 5/6 They considered that their system was just as useful, if not better, for picking up the range. 1908Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1907 621 The receiving apparatus..would pick up a number of disturbances from other stations. 1908Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 5/3 The following notes will enable it [sc. a comet] to be ‘picked up’ with the aid of an opera⁓glass and a star-map. 1913Pop. Mag. 1 May 79/2 The only signals which it was picking up now were..those of the enemy. 1921[see get v. 22 b]. 1922Encycl. Brit. XXX. 88/2 Presently the airship was ‘picked up’, and immediately from all quarters of the defences searchlights could be seen moving across to get on to it. 1929S. Ertz Galaxy xvii. 365 She and the General thoroughly enjoyed their wireless in the evening, and it was amusing to pick up Paris or Berlin. 1941[see atmosphere n. 4 b]. 1948F. P. Shepard Submarine Geol. ii. 16 The radar screen will pick up land objects and will show the position of islands, capes and mountain peaks, giving their direction and distance. 1960McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIII. 462/1 Television camera tubes are designed primarily to pick up live programs, indoors and outdoors, as well as to reproduce motion pictures. 1973Guardian 20 June 13/1 BBC Monitoring Service reports that the only Moscow Radio commentaries on Watergate picked up so far in any language were in Quechua. 1977Lancet 4 June 1187/2 Clinically, cerebral blood-flow is measured after intra-arterial injection of xenon-133; gamma radiation is picked up by two detectors and the scintillation⁓counts are fed into a laboratory digital computer. 1978Nature 6 Apr. 481/2 This detection capability has improved roughly threefold; explosions of yields of 1 or 2 kilotons in hard rock in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere would now most likely be picked up.
j. trans. To cause (a person) to revive; to serve as a ‘pick-me-up’ for (someone).
1857Dickens & Collins Lazy Tour v, in Househ. Words 31 Oct. 412/1 Several..look in at the chemist's..to be ‘picked up’. 1889‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xlii, I suppose a decent dinner will pick me up. 1914G. B. Shaw Misalliance 80 Have you had your tea?.. A cup of tea will pick you up. 1978J. Carroll Mortal Friends i. ii. 22 ‘You know me, Colman. Tea anytime.’ ‘Indeed, Father. It picks a body up.’
k. trans. and intr. To tidy or clean up; to put in order; to pick up a room, see quot. 1889. colloq. (chiefly U.S.).
1861Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. IV. 204 We did not find ‘things picked up in it’—no air of comfort about it. 1874E. S. Ward Trotty's Wedding Tour 214 It had taken all day to ‘pick up’ after the departed travellers. 1888N. Perry Flock of Girls 81 She mends these little bits of things and ‘picks up’ after you, as you call it. 1889Farmer Dict. Amer. s.v. Pick, To pick up a room, is a New England phrase for putting it in order. 1966J. Ball Cool Cottontail (1967) v. 44 ‘The room isn't properly picked up yet,’ the woman said. ‘When you have five kids..you can't get everything done.’ 1973Sunday Bull. (Philadelphia) 7 Oct. (Parade Suppl.) f5/4 Ask your children for their ideas. It's the best way to enlist their help in keeping their rooms ‘picked-up’.
l. trans. To arrest, apprehend. Cf. sense 21 d. slang (orig. U.S.).
1871Congress. Globe 5 Jan. 317/2 They are picked up for taking horses or sheep or anything of that sort. 1887Lantern (New Orleans) 11 June 2/2 I'll have the police pick him up for blackmail. 1934J. T. Farrell Young Manhood xii. 192 He gazed around the church to see if any of the boys were present. Seeing none of them, he guessed that they must all have been picked up, and were enjoying Christmas Day in the can. 1938F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying-Squad xiv. 157, I picked them up for stealing a man's wallet. Ibid. xvi. 183, I picked Billy up, knowing that he was ‘wanted’ for a job. 1946F. Sargeson That Summer 102 We all had to stand there with a crowd of jacks in plain clothes standing round, and one in uniform called out our names and said what we'd been picked up for. 1956H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) xxii. 202 You want to be able to tell the fuzz the truth if we're picked up? 1961Confidential Jan. 39/2 When Farouk was overthrown, police picked up his personal pimp, Pulley Bey. 1976‘Trevanian’ Main x. 213 Things start to go badly for him. His boys..get picked up for every minor charge in the book. 1979Massachusetts Daily Collegian 30 Apr. 14/4 He said he was not drunk when picked up on East Pleasant St. on March 29.
m. trans. To pay (a bill, account, etc.); esp. in phr. to pick up the bill, check, tab, etc.; also fig. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1945Sun (Baltimore) 23 Oct. 4 (heading) ‘Lobbyist’ said to have picked up check for Truman outing. 1947Ibid. 12 May 2/5 Some United States diplomats have entertained each other with the taxpayers picking up the check. 1956S. Bellow Seize the Day ii. 26 His father might have offered to pick up his hotel tab. 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) xxiii. 196 Americans used to make fun of the British health system, where sick people could go to doctors and hospitals for free and the government picked up the tab. 1961R. Bloch Blood runs Cold 215 I'm permitted to attend a party..when they go out to eat because I always pick up the check. 1964Wodehouse Frozen Assets ii. 32 ‘Coffee's out, I'm afraid.’ ‘Nonsense. I'll pick up the tab.’ 1966M. Brewer Man against Fear vii. 77 Tonight we pick up her bill. 1967Canad. Ann. Rev. 1966 65 Ottawa would pick up a $14 million tab for a system already in operation. 1976S. Wales Echo 27 Nov. 2/2 Mr. Gray asked if the college should be expected to ‘pick up the tab’ for even greater expenditure if grants to the theatre were cut. 1978Daily Tel. 13 Feb. 6/5 Ratepayers would have to pick up the bill if important jobs were transferred from the county councils to some of the larger districts.
n. Phrases: to pick up one's crumbs: see crumb n. 4; to pick up flesh: to regain flesh, put on flesh again; to pick up (one's) spirit, courage, etc.: to ‘pluck up’ heart; to pick up the pieces (fig.): to (try to) redeem some advantage or compensation from an apparently hopeless situation.
c1645–1888 [see crumb n. 4]. 1730–6Bailey (folio), To Pick up One's Crums, to gather strength. 1749Phil. Trans. XLVI. 79 He has pick'd up his Flesh, and promises to enjoy a good Habit of Body. 1790J. Bruce Source of Nile I. 195, I picked up courage, and..said..without trepidation, ‘What men are these before?’ 1872Black Adv. Phaeton iii, She had so far picked up her spirits. 1872Punch 29 June 269/1 The process of pulling myself together and picking myself up. 1912Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 17, I should have said it was half a night. Now, shall we go down and pick up the pieces? 1938M. Allingham Fashion in Shrouds vi. 92 It'll come to a quiet, uncomfortable end and you'll have to stand by and pick up the pieces. 1951J. C. Fennessy Sonnet in Bottle v. iv. 163 Injy was very good at taking things as they came. But he generally found it was his job to pick up the pieces afterwards. 1970A. Toffler Future Shock (1971) xvii. 391 By proliferating enclaves of the past, living museums as it were, we increase the chances that someone will be there to pick up the pieces in case of massive calamity. 1973A. Broinowski Take One Ambassador vii. 97 We could see them [sc. the Japanese] picking up the pieces in Indo-China after the Americans. 1977R. Perry Dead End i. 12 If anything does go wrong it'll be nice having you around to pick up the pieces.
o. intr. To recover health, strength, or energy after an illness; to grow well again; to recover, improve, ‘look up’, after any check or depression.
1741Richardson Pamela I. 237 Now this Woman sees me pick up so fast, she uses me worse. 1751Gray Lett., to Wharton 10 Oct., His College, which had much declined for some time, is picking up again. 1804Scott in Lockhart Life 21 Aug., He was sent down here..in a half-starved state, but begins to pick up a little. 1849C. Sturt Exp. Centr. Australia I. 262 The fact of the natives having crossed the plain confirmed my impression that the creek picked up [i.e. recovered itself] beyond it. 1864Geo. Eliot in Cross Life II. 389 He is wonderful for the rapidity with which he ‘picks up’ after looking alarmingly feeble. 1896Indianap. Typogr. Jrnl. 16 Nov. 404 Business in our trade is rapidly picking up.
p. To enter into conversation, make acquaintance or companionship with (some one casually met).
1865Pall Mall G. 7 Aug. 3 On the railway to Cologne he had picked up with Jones. 1884G. Allen Philistia I. 13 Herbert..had picked up at once with a Polish exile in a corner. Ibid. 45 So you've let your Polly go and pick up with some young man from town.
q. intr. and trans. Of a vehicle, aircraft, etc.: to gain speed after being slow-moving or stationary; to recover (speed). Cf. sense 21 o.
1922S. Lewis Babbitt v. 53 He noted how quickly his car picked up. 1932C. Isherwood Memorial iii. i. 181 ‘That's a damn fine bus,’ said Farncombe earnestly. ‘My Christ, Gerald, you should see the way she picks up.’ 1939War Illustr. 29 Dec. 539/3 However, as we got down to five hundred feet the engines began to pick up.
r. to pick up on: (a) to draw near, begin to overtake (a person) in a race; (b) U.S. slang, to understand, appreciate, or obtain.
1908Daily Chron. 27 Nov. 7/6 At the fifth lap..Dorando held him, and then began to pick up on him. 1944D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 15 Let me boot you to my play [sc. inform you of my plan] and, maybe, you can pick up on the issue. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues 377 Pick up on, get, take, learn. Ibid., Pick up on what's going down, understand what's happening. 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) i. 8 In Baltimore, places like Alice Dean's were the only joints fancy enough to have a victrola and for real enough to pick up on the best records. 1972Jazz & Blues Feb. 19/1 They came to gig in their own clubs before white people picked up on them. 1977McKnight & Tobler Bob Marley iii. 46 Paul McCartney was noted as having ‘picked up on reggae’.
Add:[III.] [5.] [c.] Also pick-your-owner, a customer or owner of a ‘pick-your-own’ farm.
1969Farm Jrnl. (U.S.) Aug. 31/2 Some growers..let pick-your-owners clean up berries that ripen later. 1985Washington Post 13 June Md. 13/1 ‘Darrow was the pioneer pick-your-owner in Washington,’ said..a staunch admirer of the horticulturalist.
▪ XII. pick, v.2 Now only dial. or techn.|pɪk|
Also 4 pykke, pik(ke, 6–7 picke, 6 pycke.
[A collateral form of pitch v.1
In ME. known only in Petyt MS. of R. Brunne (exc. l. 9939, where pykke may be pick v.1).]
†1. trans. To fix, stick, plant (something pointed) in the ground, etc.; to pitch (a tent or the like). Obs. rare.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 4645–6 Þey..pyght [Petyt MS. piked] þeym pauylons & tente. Right als þey picched [Petyt piked] þer pauylons, Cam Cassibolan. [Ibid. 9939 He dide hewe tres & pykke, & palysed hit aboute ful þykke.] Ibid. 12512 His pauilons, his penceles, þykke Nought fer fro þenne had þey don wyk [Petyt MS. pikke].a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 106 [They] picked stakes before every Archer, to breke the force of the horsemen. 1597–1602Transcr. W. Riding Sessions Rolls (Yorks. Archæol. Assoc.) 118 Sett in the Stocks..with feathers picked in his apparaile.
2. To thrust, drive; to pitch, hurl; to throw. Now dial.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxiii. 201 The frenche squyer dyd pycke his swerde at hym, and by happe strake hym through both the thyes. 15..Flodden F. 316 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 332 He..keeped me within his woone till I was able of my selfe both to shoote & picke the stone. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 184 Seeking to ouer⁓throwe him & to picke him on his nose. Ibid., To catch him vpon the hip, and to pick him on his neck. 1607Shakes. Cor. i. i. 204 As high As I could picke my Lance. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 989 To pick or throw, projicere. 1762J. Comyns Digest Laws Eng. (1780) I. 190 I'll have thee picked over the Bar [cf. bar n.1 24]. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v., He tried to pick me down. 1870Axon Folk Song Lanc. 15 Hoo pick'd him o' th' hillock. [In many northern and north-midl. dial. glossaries.]
b. spec. To throw (hay or corn) with a pitchfork (upon a cart or stack). dial.
1880N.W. Linc. Gloss., Pick,..to lift up sheaves of corn to the stack.
3. intr. To throw, cast; spec. (also pick over) to throw the shuttle across the loom. Cf. pick n.4 2.
1530Palsgr. 657/2, I pycke with an arrowe, je darde... I holde a grote I pycke as farre with an arowe as you. 1570Levins Manip. 120/28 To Pick, iaculari. 1573–80Baret Alv. P 333 To Picke, or cast. 1848Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton iv, He ne'er picked ower i' his loife. 1883Almondbury & Huddersfield Gloss. s.v., To pick also means to throw the shuttle, and the thread thus laid is called a ‘pick’... ‘To pick a pick’ is to throw the shuttle once across.
4. intr. To pitch or fall forward, as in † to pick over the perch: cf. peak v.1 1 b.
1591in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823) III. 95 If anie pearch higher than in dutie they ought, I would they might sodenly picke over the pearch for me. 1883Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal-mining, Pick away, to dip rapidly.
5. trans. Of animals: To bring forth prematurely (= cast v. 21). Common in dial. and rustic use.
1790Mrs. Wheeler Westmld. Dial. 55 We hed twoa Kaws pickt Coaf. 1810Sporting Mag. XXXV. 191 Lord Strathmore's Heroine..picked twins by Remembrancer, a short time since. 1849Stephens Bk. Farm (ed. 2) I. 221/2 Ewes in lamb..kept in a wet lair, will pick lamb, that is, suffer abortion. 1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 326 Two of my cows picked calf.
6. (Chiefly pick up.) To vomit, ‘cast up’, ‘throw up’; † formerly also intr. to come up, be vomited. Now only north. dial.
1563Foxe A. & M. 1704/1 His meate woulde not go downe, but rise & picke vp agayne. 1566Drant Wail. Hierim. K iv, My lyver pyckte up, through great force, tremblyng on grounde dyd tumble. 1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pick, to vomit. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., To Pick up, to vomit or pitch up.
7. pick on, to pitch upon, fix upon, choose. Sc. and north. dial.
1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. (1876) 267 The first twa that he picked on War Rab and Jock the Tar. 1883M. E. Mann Parish of Hilby xi. 135 She..picks upon the most beautiful thing she knows, and shapes her angels accordingly. 1894W. G. Stevenson Puddin iii. 52 He picked on one of the porters waiting at the gate for a job.
▪ XIII. pick, v.3
north. dial. form of pitch v.2
▪ XIV. pick, picke
obs. forms of pique. |