pickup
Pluralpickups
Often confused with pick up
- 1Short for pickup truck.
He tossed his tools into the bed of the pickup and headed for the job site.
A pickup pulled onto the shoulder, and the driver leaned out to ask if we needed help.
Note
In the United States and Canada the short form is the everyday name for the vehicle. It also works before another noun: the pickup man in Thomas Lake's 2024 account of a roadside encounter is simply whoever is behind the wheel of one, and a pickup bed is the open cargo space at the back.
- 2The act of collecting someone or something and taking them away, usually in a vehicle.
Trash pickup in our neighborhood moved from Monday to Tuesday.
The charity arranged a pickup of the donated furniture from our garage.
Similarcollection
Oppositedelivery
- 3Arranged on the spot rather than planned, especially of a sports game or team made up of players chosen at random.
He spent his twenties playing pickup on outdoor courts all over the city.
The singer toured with a pickup band of local musicians hired in each town.
Note
Mostly a modifier, as in a pickup game, pickup hockey or a pickup band, but players also use it on its own for the casual game itself: they play pickup instead of joining a league. Away from sport it describes anything thrown together from what is at hand, as in a pickup meal of bread, olives and melon.
- 4An approach to someone that involves flirting, made in the hope of starting a romance, getting a date, or having sex.
What started as a clumsy pickup at a wedding turned into a twenty-year marriage.
He thought he had perfected the art of the pickup until she laughed and walked away.
- 5The period during which passengers, such as schoolchildren, are collected.
Teachers stand by the curb at pickup to make sure each child gets into the right car.
Cars back up for blocks during morning drop-off and afternoon pickup.
Note
School days turn on two fixed points, drop-off and pickup, and the pair usually appears together. As a time of day it takes no article: at pickup, during afternoon pickup. Some writers hyphenate it, as Living in Brisbane did in 2021 when reminding drivers to slow down during drop-off and pick-up.
- 6A motor vehicle's acceleration, judged by how quickly it gains speed.
The new engine gives the sedan noticeably better pickup when merging onto the highway.
Reviewers praised the motorcycle's pickup but complained about its stiff seat.
Similaracceleration
Note
Car talk judges it rather than measures it: a car has good, better or the best pickup, where an engineer would quote acceleration figures. Fortune in 1946 and Popular Mechanics in 1955 both weigh it alongside top speed and fuel economy, the classic trio of a motoring review. It takes no plural.
- 7An electromagnetic coil device that detects the vibrations of metal strings, such as those on an electric guitar.
Swapping the bridge pickup gave the old guitar a brighter, sharper tone.
Each pickup sits just under the strings and senses their movement through its magnetic field.
- 8An item in a video game that the player can collect to gain some benefit or effect.
Each health pickup restores a quarter of your energy bar.
Players race to collect the pickups scattered across the map before the timer runs out.
Note
Gamers use it for anything lying in a level that the player collects by touching or walking over it, such as ammunition, health or keys; a power-up, which boosts an ability, is one kind. Your Sinclair's 1991 review of Turrican II and Acclaim's 2002 Turok Evolution guide both write it pick-up, a spelling still seen beside the closed form.
- 9A win by a challenging party or candidate in an electoral district previously held by the incumbent party or candidate.
The opposition needs a net pickup of five seats to take control of the House.
The challenger's narrow win in the suburban riding was the night's only pickup for the Conservatives.
Similargain
Oppositeloss
Note
A term of election-night arithmetic in the US and Canada. Parties count their pickups seat by seat, and a net pickup is what remains once their own losses are subtracted. It contrasts with a hold, where the party already in the seat keeps it; a Canadian commentator may speak of a pickup in a riding rather than a district.
- 10The state of being picked up or taken up; adoption by some person, group, or organization.
The press release got wide pickup, appearing in more than forty regional papers.
Despite strong reviews, the new standard has seen slow pickup among hardware makers.
Note
Newsrooms and publicists use it for how widely a story is taken up by other outlets: an article gets pickup, and a novelty angle may bring more pickup. Outside the media it can describe how a standard or product is adopted. Here the word is uncountable, so a release gets wide pickup, never a pickup.
- 11A person who has been successfully approached and flirted with in pursuit of romance or sex.
Her friends teased her about last night's pickup from the hotel bar.
She made it clear she had no intention of being anybody's easy pickup.
Note
Rarely a kind word. The set phrase an easy pickup passes judgment on the person, and Steven Carter's What Every Man Should Know About the "New Woman" (1984) observes that no woman wants it applied to her. Earlier writers hyphenated it, as Norman Lindsay does with pick-ups in 1950; the closed spelling is now the usual one.
- 12In a record player, the electromagnetic component that converts the vibrations of the needle into an electrical signal.
A worn pickup can make even a spotless record sound muddy.
The turntable came with a moving-magnet pickup and a spare stylus.
Similarcartridge
Note
Hi-fi enthusiasts also call this part a phono cartridge, and it belongs to a whole family of pickups, devices that turn sound or vibration into an electrical signal. Its nearest relative is the coil under a guitar's strings; both sense movement, but this one follows the needle through a record's groove rather than listening to a vibrating string.
- 13The answering of an incoming telephone call.
The system sends the caller to voicemail if there's no pickup after five rings.
The call center aims for pickup within twenty seconds of the first ring.
Similaranswer
- 14The reception of sound, vibration, or similar signals by a microphone or other detecting device.
The lapel microphone gives clear pickup of the speaker's voice without much crowd noise.
Directional pickup lets the camera's mic ignore sounds coming from behind it.
- 15A relatively minor shot filmed or recorded afterward to supplement footage already shot.
The studio scheduled a week of pickups to fill gaps in the second act.
The editor needed a pickup of the clock on the wall to bridge the two scenes.
Note
Smaller than a reshoot. A reshoot redoes a scene, while a pickup supplies a missing piece, such as an insert, a reaction shot or a line of dialogue recorded later. Pickups are often scheduled once main filming has wrapped, with a reduced crew, to fill the gaps an editor finds in the cut.
- 16In various ball games, the fielding or hitting of a ball immediately after it strikes the ground.
The shortstop's backhand pickup on the short hop saved a run.
Pinned behind the baseline, she could only manage a forehand pickup that floated wide.
Note
Fielders speak of a clean pickup when they gather a bouncing ball smoothly. In tennis it names a shot struck just after the bounce, close to the feet, much like a half volley; at Wimbledon in 2011 Tamira Paszek flicked a forehand pick-up into the tramlines. Either way, timing the ball off the ground is the whole skill.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from pick + up.