1. Select carefully from a group
   "She finally picked her successor"; "He picked his way carefully"
    
2. Look for and gather
   "pick mushrooms"; "pick flowers";
   - pluck, cull
    
3. Remove unwanted substances from, such as feathers or pits
   "pick the turkey";
   - clean
    
4. Remove in small bits
   "pick meat from a bone"
    
5. Eat intermittently; take small bites of
   "She never eats a full meal—she just picks";
   - nibble, piece
    
6. Hit lightly with a picking motion
   "She picked the strings of the guitar";
   - peck, beak
    
7. Pull lightly but sharply with a plucking motion
   "he picked the strings of his mandolin";
   - pluck, plunk [informal]
    
8. Hit (for example ice or rocky ground) with or as if with a pickaxe
   "Pick open the ice";
   - break up
    
9. Pilfer or rob
   "pick pockets"
    
10. Pay for something
    "pick up the tab";
    - foot
     
11. Harass with constant criticism
    "Don't always pick on your little brother";
    - blame, find fault
     
12. Provoke
    "pick a fight or a quarrel"

1. The act of choosing or selecting
   "you can take your pick";
   - choice, selection, option
    
2. The person or thing chosen or selected
   "he was my pick for mayor";
   - choice, selection
    
3. The best people or things in a group
   "the pick of England's young men were killed in the Great War";
   - cream
    
4. A thin sharp implement used for removing unwanted material
   "he used a pick to clean the dirt out of the cracks"
    
5. A small thin device (of metal, plastic or ivory) used to pluck a stringed instrument
   "He carefully selected a pick before strumming his guitar";
   - plectrum, plectron
    
6. A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle and a curved head that is pointed on both ends
   "they used picks and sledges to break the rocks";
   - pickax [US], pickaxe
    
7. The quantity of a crop that is harvested
   "it was the biggest peach pick in years";
   - picking
    
8. The yarn woven across the warp yarn in weaving
   "The colourful pick threads created a beautiful pattern in the fabric";
   - woof, weft, filling
    
9. A basketball manoeuvre; obstructing an opponent with one's body
   "he was called for setting an illegal pick"

Sounds like: pi, pi

Derived forms: picking, picks, picked

See also: cull out

Type of: action, basketball play, call forth, choose, collect, criticise [Brit], criticize, damn [informal], deciding, decision making, device, draw, eat, edge tool, elite, élite [Brit], elite group, evoke, garner, gather, hand tool, kick up [informal], knock [informal], output, pay, penetrate, pick apart, pick out, pierce, production, provoke, pull, pull together, remove, rob, select, strike, take, take away, thread, withdraw, yarn, yield

Part of: cloth, fabric, material, textile, weave

Encyclopedia: Pick, Frank