(v.) 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.
(v.) To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
(v.) To open (a lock) as by a wire.
(v.) 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.
(v.) 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.
(v.) 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.
(v.) 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.
(v.) To trim.
(v. i.) To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
(v. i.) To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
(v. i.) To steal; to pilfer.
(n.) A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
(n.) A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, -- used by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
(n.) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
(n.) Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick.
(n.) That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
(n.) A particle of ink or paper imbedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and occasioning a spot on a printed sheet.
(n.) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
(n.) The blow which drives the shuttle, -- the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch.
Example Sentences:
(1) S&P – the only one of the three major agencies not to have stripped the UK of its coveted AAA status – said it had been surprised at the pick-up in activity during 2013 – a year that began with fears of a triple-dip recession.
(2) The information about her father's semi-brainwashing forms an interesting backdrop to Malala's comments when I ask if she ever wonders about the man who tried to kill her on her way back from school that day in October last year, and why his hands were shaking as he held the gun – a detail she has picked up from the girls in the school bus with her at the time; she herself has no memory of the shooting.
(3) This is not for the most part revolutionary.” Trump has made some of his least ideological picks in the area of national security and foreign policy.
(4) Critics of wind power peddle the same old myths about investment in new energy sources adding to families' fuel bills , preferring to pick a fight with people concerned about the environment, than stand up to vested interests in the energy industry, for the hard-pressed families and pensioners being ripped off by the energy giants.
(5) Careless Herbicidal aerial spray of a field for weed control and defoliation of cotton before machine picking, resulted in the contamination of an adjoining reservoir, killing large volume of fish.
(6) It would cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds in transaction costs, it would blow a massive hole in their balance of payments, it would leave them having to pick up the entirety of UK debt.
(7) Joe Gregory, parked outside the arena while waiting to pick up his girlfriend and her sister from the concert, captured its impact on his car’s dashcam.
(8) Everyone worked hard, but it is fair to pick out Willian because of his work-rate, quality on the ball, participation in the first goal and quality of the second.” It had been Willian’s fizzed cross, 11 minutes before the break, which Dragovic had nodded inadvertently inside Shovkovskiy’s near post to earn the hosts their initial lead.
(9) Taxpayers will pick up an immediate £40m bill for compensating the four shortlisted companies that bid for the west coast franchise.
(10) "While it seems possible that more will join the two MPC dissenters in coming months if wage growth picks up, it looks a long way to go before a majority on the MPC vote to raise interest rates," he said.
(11) Those are our picks, but what have you been enjoying on Android this week?
(12) Phil Barlow Nottingham • Reading about the problems caused by a lack of toilets reminded me of the harvest camps my father’s Birmingham school organised in the Vale of Evesham during the war, where the sixth-formers spent weeks picking fruit and vegetables on farms.
(13) This is no doubt a captain’s pick by Malcolm Turnbull and we hope for the sake of the relationship that it has been a good pick.” The planned appointment of Hockey to the Washington role has been one of the worst-kept secrets in Australian politics .
(14) Now another deep cross is thrown into the box and Guzan leaps to claim it, but can only parry it down and pick up the second ball.
(15) After winning his prize, Malcolm Turnbull must learn from Abbott's mistakes Read more Abbott appointed Warren Mundine to head his hand picked advisory council on Indigenous affairs.
(16) Trawling through the private telephone conversations of royals, politicians and celebrities in the hope of picking up scandalous gossip is not seen as legitimate news gathering and the techniques of entrapment which led to the recent Pakistani match-fixing scandal , although grudgingly admired in this particular case, are derided as manufacturing the news.
(17) This makes The Red Pill a continuous, multi-voiced, up-to-the-minute male complaint nestled at the heart of the so-called manosphere – a network of websites preoccupied with both the men’s rights movement and how to pick up women.
(18) We propose that MS at the age of 1 year 6 months would be more effective to pick up these cases, because treatment strategies depend on the different biological characteristics of tumor cells.
(19) Business picked up in the fourth quarter of 2013 but the consumer goods giant said those markets had continued to slow and it expected "ongoing volatility in the external environment".
(20) But I'm starting with the job that I can do something about right now – scrabbling around on the floor, picking up three-inch nails and cigarette butts so that the new four-year-olds will have somewhere safe to play at break.
Unpicked
Definition:
(a.) Picked out; picked open.
(a.) Not picked.
Example Sentences:
(1) However in a repeat of the current standoff over the federal budget, the conservative wing of the Republican party is threatening to exploit its leverage over raising the debt ceiling to unpick Obama's healthcare reforms.
(2) The task of unpicking exactly what type of gap in intelligence that the surveillance-savvy and well-organised bombers were able to slip through will take time, but it holds the key to preventing further Islamic State attacks.
(3) Somewhere like Ketchum – mind you, that can get pretty bumpin’ in winter.” We unpicked this slowly.
(4) This is not a deal that Walmart can suddenly unpick: it was announced in June and completed recently, approved by Massmart's international investors.
(5) The new deal thrashed out in a hurry in the small hours by the three main political parties – now, at last, having a common conversation – insisted on "underpinning" the pantomime horse of charter with a requirement that it could only be unpicked or amended by a two-thirds vote of parliament.
(6) When Labour was returned to power in 1997, many of us were optimistic that its virtual three-term majority afforded it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring forth a programme of socially progressive legislation that, if planned carefully, would prove difficult for future right-wing Tory administrations to unpick.
(7) The structure of the new ministry took some unpicking - but I assume at this stage that an administrative arrangements order will make sense of which portfolio bits have gone where.
(8) Even the House of Lords couldn’t stomach Osborne’s tax credit cuts | Polly Toynbee Read more In the immediate aftermath of the budget Osborne seemed to have pulled off his conjuring trick, but as often with budgets the IFS and others started to unpick the impact of his work.
(9) "The contracts are not due to be signed until May [and] anyone looking to sign one should understand that we'll do all we can to legally unpick them if David Cameron enters No 10.
(10) There are many flaws in the government case which a determined opposition will unpick between now and the next general election in 2020.
(11) Weissmann formerly led the FBI’s fraud unit and the taskforce that unpicked the complex financial dealings of Enron, after the giant energy corporation collapsed in December 2001.
(12) As long [ago] as it is, we will get to the bottom of it.” Pressed on whether he believes there was a Westminster-based paedophile ring, as has been alleged, Hogan-Howe said: “I don’t think we know yet.” Investigations into historical allegations contain “so much that’s difficult to unpick”, he added, with “some twists and turns” that are vital to the outcome of the case.
(13) Is there the staff and experience available to start unpicking it?” Dougal said cuts at Westminster were already affecting the Scottish fishing community’s relationship both with Defra and the EU.
(14) Such a move would, he said, be "part privatisation by stealth" and be impossible to unpick, resulting in a loss of value for taxpayers that ultimately own the organisation.
(15) At the frontline, the picture is murkier but richer: there's plenty of data (at least in acute settings) but this is rarely uncontested and often hard to unpick.
(16) Mackay warns against trying to unpick the complexities of the language.
(17) But the work penalty shows it may at least be possible to begin unpicking their electoral coalition.
(18) But it did not take long for the financial markets to unpick the Brussels agreement.
(19) Most commentators agree that if the UK votes to leave the EU, it will trigger a huge wave of parliamentary legislation, to unpick our UK laws from those of the EU.
(20) But the purpose of such sites is notoriously difficult to unpick.