pick
Forms
- Plural
- picks
- present (v1)
- pick
- past (v2)
- picked
- past participle (v3)
- picked
- present participle
- picking
- 3rd person singular
- picks
Definitions
1.A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
- I'll pick you up after school.
- I have to pick my kids up at their school.
- Tom tried to pick up his keys with his toes.
2.An anchor.(slang)
- It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.
3.A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
- I'll pick you up after school.
- I have to pick my kids up at their school.
- Tom tried to pick up his keys with his toes.
4.A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
- I'll pick you up after school.
- I have to pick my kids up at their school.
- Tom tried to pick up his keys with his toes.
1.To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
- Don't pick at that scab.
2.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.
- It's time to pick the tomatoes.
3.To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
- She picked flowers in the meadow.
4.To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #492
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Common
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck.