> as lemmas

1618 H. 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.

a1677 G. Wither Perpetuall Parl. in Misc. Wks. (1872–7) 51 This picking out again, What their impression left upon my brain.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. xi. 219 They seemed to..consider them [sc. little bits of gold] as just worth the picking up, but not worth the refusing to any body who asked them. View more context for this quotation

1846 G. 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.

1863 Once a Week 14 Nov. 569/2 There is one infamous method of thieving in the streets..which is called ‘picking up’.

1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women I. xi. 169 They [sc. plates of fruit] dwindled sadly after the picking over.

1889 C. T. Clarkson & J. H. Richardson Police! xxv. 348 ‘Coshers’ and ‘trippers’ or ‘picking-up molls’, are vile men and women who travel from town to town.

1904 H. Black Pract. Self Culture iv. 105 The picking up of crumbs of knowledge is not in itself education.

1925 Times 23 May 9/3 The picking-up power of an aërial varies as the square of the effective height.

1955 B. C. L. Kemp Elem. Org. Chem. (new ed.) xiv. 203 If the crystals are sufficiently well-defined, it may..be possible to purify these two groups by picking-out.

1979 P. Cosgrave Three Colonels 189 That greatest of vices of warriors after a battle, the picking over..of memories.

2003 Oxoniensia 67 169 The waste removal from the processed grain during the final picking over.