DictionaryAI

pick

PIK/pɪk/

Verbpicks, picking, picked

Noun pluralpicks

33 meanings of pick

Practice

  1. 1
    chooseverbtransitive
    To decide on one option from a set of choices; to select.

    Voters pick their representatives in each election.

    He picked the cheapest flight from the list of options.

    UsageOften pick someone for a team, or pick out one from many. Pick up means something different.

    Similarchoose, select, elect

    Oppositereject

  2. 2
    choicenoun
    The act or power of choosing; a choice among options.

    As the winner, she had her pick of the prizes.

    Senior employees get first pick of vacation dates each year.

    UsageUsually take your pick, have the pick of, or get first pick of.

    Similarchoice, selection

    Note

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton's What Will He Do With It? (serialized from 1857) gives France and Russia 'the pick of our stables', meaning the right to choose first. Here the right to choose is the point. That separates it from the meaning 'the best one', where the pick is the thing chosen.

  3. 3
    gather upverbtransitive
    To take up and gather things from various places, bringing them together into a collection.

    Volunteers pick litter from the riverbank each weekend.

    The children spent the morning picking seashells from every corner of the beach.

    Similarcollect, gather

  4. 4
    harvestverbtransitive
    To gather fruit, vegetables, or whole plants by removing them from the plant or pulling them from the ground.

    Workers pick coffee cherries by hand on the steep hillsides.

    They picked the last of the pumpkins before the frost arrived.

    Similarharvest, gather, pluck

  5. 5
    best onenoun
    The best or most desirable one from a group; the choicest item.

    The young striker is the pick of this year's recruits.

    Critics called her debut novel the pick of the season.

    UsageUsually the pick of a group, as in the pick of the bunch.

    Similarbest, cream, highlight

  6. 6
    choose carefullyverbtransitive
    To do something fastidiously or carefully, attending to small details, or to select something with care.

    Hikers pick their way along the narrow ledge, testing every foothold before trusting it.

    Knowing the reporters were listening, the senator picked her words with unusual care.

    UsageMostly in pick your way (move carefully) and pick your words (choose them carefully).

    Similarchoose, select, weigh

    Note

    The carefulness shows in small movements. A familiar frame is pick one's way, used of moving cautiously past obstacles such as thorny shrubs or a narrow ledge. The same care carries over to choosing, as in picking one's words, where the stress falls on caution rather than on selection alone. That is what separates it from plain choosing.

  7. 7
    pluck outverbtransitive
    To remove, pull off, or separate something using the fingers, the teeth, or a pointed tool.

    She picked a splinter out of her finger with a needle.

    Birds pick insects from the bark with their beaks.

    UsageOften pick something out of or off something. Set phrases include pick a pocket and pick your teeth.

    Similarpluck, remove, pull, extract

    Note

    Several old fixed phrases grow from this meaning: pick the teeth, pick a bone, pick a goose, pick a pocket. The last one leads a criminal life. Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor asks 'Did you pick Master Slender's purse?', and Dickens's Oliver Twist has the Artful Dodger charged 'with attempting to pick a pocket'. William Cowper's The Task, meanwhile, has a hungry man who 'picks clean teeth' with an old tavern quill.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The four phrases illustrate the stated removal sense of pick. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor contains the quoted question, spoken by Falstaff to Pistol. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • Dickens's Oliver Twist contains the quoted charge; Fagin reports it. etc.usf.edu
    • The accused is the Artful Dodger, a boy. gutenberg.org
    • William Cowper's The Task describes a hungry man picking clean teeth with an old tavern quill. gutenberg.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of pick apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle English piken, from Old English forms such as pīcan and pȳcan ("to pick, prick, pluck"), going back through Proto-Germanic, possibly to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to make a dull, hollow sound. It is a doublet of pitch and peck, and is cognate with Dutch pikken and German picken ("to pick, peck").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts