| 释义 |
▪ I. picking, vbl. n.1|ˈpɪkɪŋ|
Also piking, etc.: see pick v.1
[f. pick v.1 + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of pick v.1 in various senses.
αc1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 273, & þou has for þi pikyng, mykille ille likyng. c1440Promp. Parv. 397/2 Pykynge, or clensynge, purgacio. 1531in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 100 Conspiryces.., and pykyn of quarells day by day.
β1548Elyot Lat. Dict., Carminatio..the pickyng or cardynge of woull. 1672Wilkins Nat. Relig. 234 Without any such picking and chusing amongst them, as may bend the laws to make them suitable to our own interests. 1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 80 Picking or culling of Fruits. 1844G. Dodd Textile Manuf. i. 25 This opening of the matted cotton is first partially effected by the process of ‘picking’..Women and children partially disentangle the cotton. 1885C. F. Holder Marvels Anim. Life 174 The inspiriting picking of the banjo. 1934[see picker1 1 g]. 1956[see guitar-picking s.v. guitar n. b]. 1973Time Out 2–8 Mar. 21/1 The audience whoop away like madmen, and there's some marvellous pickin' and fiddlin'.
b. With adverbs. Also attrib.
1618H. Wotton Let. in L. P. Smith Life & Lett. Sir H. Wotton (1907) II. 159 Remarkable how the divine justice, in a casual picking out of the foresaid number, from a 150 tumultuary men, did direct the man employed about this choice. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 606 The stopping and picking-out tools are made of polished steel. 1846G. Dodd Brit. Manuf. 6th Ser. v. 131 The part of the coach-painter's work which requires the largest amount of care and neatness is that of ‘picking⁓out’, or painting fine lines, scrolls, &c. of one colour on a groundwork of a different colour. 1863Once a Week 14 Nov. 569/2 There is one infamous method of thieving in the streets..which is called ‘picking up’... This ‘picking⁓up’ system abounds in every large town... A woman is always the principal actor in these cases, and she is called the ‘picking-up moll’. 1868L. M. Alcott Little Women I. xi. 169 They [sc. plates of fruit] dwindled sadly after the picking over. 1869F. Henderson Six Yrs. in Prisons Eng. vii. 76 ‘I heard a bloke talking about a ‘picking-up moll’ he used to live with. What did he mean by that?’ ‘O! that's a very common racket. He meant a ‘flash⁓tail’, or prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up ‘toffs’.’ 1889[see cosher s.v. cosh n.3]. 1890Pall Mall G. 4 Oct. 7/2 A grapnel was lowered over the bows by means of a long rope, the end of which was taken under the dynamometer to the picking-up drum. 1904H. Black Pract. Self Culture iv. 105 The picking up of crumbs of knowledge is not in itself education. 1925Times 23 May 9/3 The picking-up power of an aërial varies as the square of the effective height. 1976West Lancs. Evening Gaz. 8 Dec. 8/3 If a train leaving Blackpool early on Saturday morning for London is full by the time it leaves its last picking-up point at Wigan, it will have 500 people aboard helping a scout effort. 1977Gay News 24 Mar. 15/4 Glasgow SMG is still suffering from the bad image—‘a closetted picking-up place’—of the early years. 1979P. Cosgrave Three Colonels 189 That greatest of vices of warriors after a battle, the picking over..of memories.
2. spec.
a. Stealing, theft; in later use, petty theft, pilfering; esp. in picking and stealing: see pick v.1 9 b.
α1401Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 66 That almes is pykyng, y fynde it in thi boke. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. iii. (Cock & Fox) iv, In pyking of pultrie baith day and nycht. 1535Coverdale Bible Ded., His pestilent pykynge of Peter pens out of youre realme.
β1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Catech., To kepe my handes from picking and stealing. 1753Scots Mag. May 260/2 He had been in a continual practice of picking and stealing. 1806Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 437 Sheep..carried away, if above the number seven..[M'Gregor] styled lifting; if below seven, he only considered it as a picking.
b. Weaving. A finishing process of cloth-making: see quot. 1875.
c. Metallurgy. Rough sorting of ores.
d. The finishing of an electrotype plate by removing picks or defects.
e. Masonry. Dabbing: see dab v.1 1, quot. 1876.
f. Basket-weaving. (See quot. 1912.)
1839Ure Dict. Arts 812 The mechanical preparation of ores, including picking, stamping, and different modes of washing. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1698/1 Picking Cloth... It is subjected to a strong light, and all blemishes removed from its surface by tweezers. Spots which have escaped the action of the dye are touched with dye by a camel's-hair brush. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Piking. See Cobbing. 1890Cent. Dict., Picking..6. Removing picks..in electrotype plates with the tools of an electrotype-finisher. 1912T. Okey Introd. Art of Basket-Making 153 Picking, cutting off the projecting ends of rods when the work is partially or wholly finished.
3. concr.
†a. A mark produced by pricking; a prick. (Only OE.)
This is the earliest known trace of a verb corresp. to pike or pick in OE.; see etymology of pick v.1
c725Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) S. 572 Stigmata, picung.
b. That which is or may be picked, or picked up; the produce of picking, the amount picked; a scraping, a scrap; pl. gleanings of fruit, remaining scraps of food, or portions of anything worth picking up or appropriating.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. xii. Wks. 1851 III. 321 The Vulturs had then but small pickings. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 531 Then reason began to open; and we gathered by little pickings the ideas of good and mischievous, of right and wrong. 1808H. Holland Cheshire 62 These pickings [from salt pans] were analysed... He found 480 parts..to contain 40 of muriate of soda, 60 of carbonate, and 380 of sulphate of lime. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre xi, The scanty pickings I had now and then been able to glean at Lowood. 1892Walsh Tea (Philad.) 115 At 4 o'clock each evening the day's ‘picking’ is carried to the factory. 1893[see picker1 1 a]. Mod. (Kent) The boy was sent to jail for stealing apples, but they were only a few peekings.
c. Chiefly pl. Perquisites privately picked up, or dishonestly come by; pilferings.
1765Foote Commissary i. Wks. 1799 II. 10 Rich as an Indian governor. Heaven knows how he came by it... Pretty pickings, I warrant, abroad. 1809Malkin Gil Blas v. i. ⁋12 The pretty pickings to be made out of this juggle. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt Introd., But heir or no heir, Lawyer Jermyn had had his picking out of the estate. 1893W. P. Courtney in Academy 13 May 413/1 It must be confessed that the pickings of the office [of Paymaster-General] were enormous.
4. a. (See quot.) b. pl. ‘Pounded oyster shells for gravel walks’ (Simmonds Dict. Trade 1858).
c1858Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict. ii. 140/1 The same sort of brick if burnt a little harder, is called a paver, and if rather softer than it ought to be, and of pale colour, a picking.
5. attrib. and Comb., as picking-season, picking-table, picking-time, etc.; (sense 2 f) picking-knife; picking-bed, a bed in a quarry that is picked away; picking-bee N. Amer. (see bee1 4); picking-belt, a travelling belt on which coal is picked; picking-ground, ground capable of being picked; picking salt: see quot.
1883Stonemason Jan., Of this the top 12 inches is used as a *picking-bed, so that blocks 6½ feet deep can always be obtained when required.
1828in Dict. Americanisms (1951) s.v. picking bee, Mother went to a *picking Bee to pick wool. 1905M. G. Sherk Pen Pict. Early Pioneer Life Upper Canada 177 The wool was then picked over by the women and girls, to get out any burs or lumps of dirt that might have adhered to it, ‘pickin'’ bees being frequently made for this purpose. 1943S. Menefee Assignment: U.S.A. 48 In 1943 the townspeople were prepared to turn out for a picking-bee lasting most of the season, if necessary, to save the crop.
1901Chambers's Jrnl. May 312/2 The excellent condition in which the coal was shipped,..was in great part due to the use of an appliance known as a ‘*picking’ belt. 1921Spectator 28 May 680/1 Girls on a picking-belt or in a colliery brick-works were earning similarly inflated wages.
1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 514 The removal in blasting-ground of 200 cubic feet, and in soft *picking-ground..of 800 cubic feet.
1912T. Okey Introd. Art of Basket-Making vi. 28 The ends of the bottom-sticks are now cut off by the shears and the projecting tops and butts neatly picked off with the *picking knife. 1960E. Legg Country Baskets 57 The last operation is the trimming off of all ends of canes and rods, ‘picking the basket’ as the craftsman calls it, for which he uses a special picking knife.
1884Chester Gloss., *Picking salt.., the first salt made after a pan has been ‘picked’, that is, has had the scale taken off the bottom.
1874Chambers's Encycl. s.v. Cotton, From the date of blooming to the close of the *picking season, warm dry weather is essential.
1901Scotsman 15 Oct. 4/8 After being thoroughly screened, the lump coal is carried on to *picking tables.
1835J. H. Ingraham South-West II. 285 ‘*Picking time’..continues where full crops are made until the first of December. 1848[see knock v. 8]. 1949C. S. Murray This our Land 87 Picking time begins about August 20.
1682Dryden Abs. & Achit. ii. 418 He was too warm on *Picking-work to dwell.
▪ II. ˈpicking, vbl. n.2
[f. pick v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of pick v.2
1. Weaving. The driving of the shuttle to and fro in a loom; esp. attrib. as in † picking peg (obs.) = picker2; picking cord, picking lever, picking motion, picking shaft, picking staff, picking stick, names of parts employed in this action: cf. picker2 b.
1827Edin. Rev. XLVI. 4 Mechanical contrivance technically denominated a picking peg. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 1285 He lays hold of the picking-peg in his right hand, and, with a smart jerk of his wrist, drives the fly-shuttle swiftly from one side of the loom to the other... The plan of throwing the shuttle by the picking peg and cord is a great improvement upon the old way of throwing it by hand. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1698/1 In one form of hand-loom, the picking-peg is drawn by a cord. In the power-loom the driver is on a vibrating staff. Ibid., Picking-stick (Weaving), the picker-staff for driving the shuttle of a power-loom. 1878Barlow Weaving xxv. 269 (heading), Shuttles and picking motions. Ibid. 271 This plan was to affix inclined planes to the peripheries of fly-wheels—one at each end of the crank shaft, so as to strike against a stud fixed upon a picking-shaft connected to each picking-stick. 1897Westm. Gaz. 22 Jan. 7/2 For shafts he has used a lot of the hickory picking staffs used in power looms.
2. Spinning. ‘The travelling of the bobbin up and down the spindle in the process of being filled, so that it may be equally full all over’ (McLaren).
1884W. S. B. McLaren Spinning (ed. 2) 152 The spool..requires a triple motion; a very short one at first filling the lower end, during which time the bobbin only moves a little way up and down, and then a longer ‘picking’..up and down, with the constantly lowering motion the same as for the tube.
3. The action of pitching or throwing sheaves, etc. Also attrib., as picking-fork, a hay-fork, pitchfork; picking-hole, a window or door aloft in a barn or hayloft, through which hay or sheaves are pitched; a pitch-hole. north. dial.
1847–78Halliwell, Picking-hole. 1854‘Tom Treddlehoyle’ Bairnsla Foak's Ann. 25 Made it into hay, an thrawn it throo t' pickin-hoyle. 1873Cordeaux Birds of Humber 14 One of the picking-holes at the north end of the barn.
▪ III. picking, ppl. a.|ˈpɪkɪŋ|
Also 6 pyking, Sc. -and.
[f. pick v.1 + -ing2.]
1. That picks, in the senses of the verb; spec. thievish.
1535Lyndesay Satyre 2657 Sic pykand peggrall theifis ar hangit. 1550Lever Serm. (Arb.) 38 Pickinge theft, is lesse than murtheryng robrye. 1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iv. (1577) T viij, The ouerwealthy..waxe stiffe necked and recklesse, the poore, desperate and pyking. 1565–73Cooper Thesaurus, Diætarij, picking fellowes looking into chambers or parlours..onely of purpose to steale. 1894Kipling Jungle Bk. 52 Nothing but foolish words and little picking thievish hands.
†2. Dainty; fastidious; trifling, nice. Obs. Perh. vbl. n. used attrib.
1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 3 If thy mill stones be not worne too blunt, for want of pecking, there is picking meat for thee. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. i. 198 The King is wearie Of daintie, and such picking Grieuances. 1678Bunyan Pilgr. Auth. Apol. (ed. 2) 227 Dost thou love picking meat? |