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Pick up   /pɪk əp/   Listen
verb
Pick  v. t.  (past & past part. picked; pres. part. picking)  
1.
To throw; to pitch. (Obs.) "As high as I could pick my lance."
2.
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.
3.
To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
4.
To open (a lock) as by a wire.
5.
To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck; to gather, as fruit from a tree, flowers from the stalk, feathers from a fowl, etc.
6.
To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth; as, to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket. "Did you pick Master Slender's purse?" "He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet."
7.
To choose; to select; to separate as choice or desirable; to cull; as, to pick one's company; to pick one's way; often with out. "One man picked out of ten thousand."
8.
To take up; esp., to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together; as, to pick rags; often with up; as, to pick up a ball or stones; to pick up information.
9.
To trim. (Obs.)
To pick at, to tease or vex by pertinacious annoyance.
To pick a bone with. See under Bone.
To pick a thank, to curry favor. (Obs.)
To pick off.
(a)
To pluck; to remove by picking.
(b)
To shoot or bring down, one by one; as, sharpshooters pick off the enemy.
To pick out.
(a)
To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors.
(b)
To select from a number or quantity.
To pick to pieces, to pull apart piece by piece; hence (Colloq.), to analyze; esp., to criticize in detail.
To pick a quarrel, to give occasion of quarrel intentionally.
To pick up.
(a)
To take up, as with the fingers.
(b)
To get by repeated efforts; to gather here and there; as, to pick up a livelihood; to pick up news.


Pick  v. i.  
1.
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. "Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?"
2.
To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
3.
To steal; to pilfer. "To keep my hands from picking and stealing."
To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. (Colloq. U.S.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Pick up" Quotes from Famous Books



... those days, a fine old fellow, who, when the danger was at its height, went fearlessly from house to house. He had white hair, rosy cheeks, and a slim, erect figure, and was always cracking jokes with us. He used to say: "No funk, no risk of Death!" and would pick up the beautiful golden melons before our eyes and eat them with the best appetite in the world, and he took no harm from them, for he feared no danger. You had only to live regularly and trust in God, he used to say. He would laugh when we asked him: "Is it true ...
— The Day of Wrath • Maurus Jokai
... up his mind as to what he should do, Captain Hamelin had the good luck to pick up an open boat containing Boullanger, one of the scientific staff of Le Geographe, a lieutenant, and eight sailors. They were absent from the ship when the storm burst, and Baudin had sailed away without them. His conduct on this occasion had ...
— Terre Napoleon - A history of French explorations and projects in Australia • Ernest Scott
... a scraper of odds and ends. I pick up things in the gutter. Mind you, those Jews ain't such fools, though a curse is on 'em, to wander forth. They know the meaning of the multiplication table. They can turn fractions into whole numbers. No; I'm not to be compared to gentlemen. My property's my ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... if they had been transported to Paradise after the terrible experiences of the past winter, with a mere shed for shelter, the coal running short at too frequent intervals, and meat only compassed as a rare luxury on the "lucky" days when one or the other could pick up an extra nickel, or two, ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... that the steam-engine is a very wasteful machine, because so little of the energy is brought into actual operation. I am afraid that there are a great many of us Christian people like that, getting so much capacity, and turning out so little work. And there are a great many more of us who simply pick up the kind of work that is popular round us, and never consult our own bent, nor follow this humbly and bravely, wherever it will take us. 'She ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren


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