pick

Meanings

Noun

• A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
• A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
• A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
• A choice; ability to choose.
• That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
• A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
• An anchor.
• A screen.
• An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
• An interception.
• A good defensive play by an infielder.
• A pickoff.
• A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
• A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
• A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
• That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
• The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.

Verb

• To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
• To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.
• To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
• To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
• To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
• To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
• To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
• To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.
• To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
• To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
• To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
• To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
• To steal; to pilfer.
• To throw; to pitch.
• To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.
• To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
• To screen.

Origin

• From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung), and pȳcan, both from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną, *pūkijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu-. Cognate with Dutch pikken ("to pick"), German picken ("to pick, peck"), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka ("to pick, prick"), Swedish picka ("to pick, peck")).