Word.ws English Dictionary

pick

/pɪk/

pick noun: a tool used for digging; a pickaxe.

pick: a tool used for digging; a pickaxe
Image: Hyena, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pick (plural picks)

  1. A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
  2. (slang) An anchor.
    • It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.2021 December, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 41, column 2
  3. A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
  4. A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
  5. A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
  6. A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
  7. (obsolete) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
    • Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV...
  8. A choice; ability to choose.
    • France and Russia have the pick of our stables.1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?
  9. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
  10. (Australia) Pasture; feed, for animals.
    • ‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 69
    • The judicious use of fire could have protected valuable nut trees, promoted the growth and seeding of grass and, if practised at a distance from their camps, even attracted herbivores to the sweet young pick.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 232
  11. A screen.
  12. An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
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  1. An interception.
  2. A good defensive play by an infielder.
  3. A pickoff.
  4. (dated) A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
    • If it be in the smallest degree gritty, it clogs the form, and consequently produces a thick and imperfect impression; no pains should, therefore, be spared to render it perfectly smooth; it may then be made to work as clear and free from picksc. 1866, Thomas MacKellar, The American Printer
  5. (painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
  6. The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.
    • so many picks to an inch
    • Leaving a tail 2 yd long for hemstitching, weave 3 picks of plain weave and use the tail to hemstitch in groups of 8 warp ends. Weave 3 more picks of plain weave, then begin the pattern treadling following the draft in Figure 2, beginning with the border.2026, Sydney Sogol, “Blue Morpho Runner”, in Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 50

Verb

pick (third-person singular simple present picks, present participle picking, simple past and past participle picked)

  1. To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
    • Don't pick at that scab.
    • He picked his nose.
  2. To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.
    • It's time to pick the tomatoes.
  3. To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
    • She picked flowers in the meadow.
    • to pick feathers from a fowl
  4. To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
    • to pick rags
  5. To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
    • to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket
    • Did you pick Master Slender's purse?c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  6. To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
    • I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
    • She had to pick her steps to avoid the flutters of the quivering, bleeding bodies.1907, Journal of Zoöphily, volume 14, number 3, Philadelphia: American Anti-Vivisection Society, page 26
  7. (transitive) To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
  8. To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.
    • He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
  9. To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
    • He picked a tune on his banjo.
  10. To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
    • The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
  11. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
    • Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?1693, John Dryden, Third Satire of Persius
  12. To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
    • I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs.
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  1. To steal; to pilfer.
    • to keep my hands from picking and stealing1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC
  2. (obsolete) To throw; to pitch.
    • as high as I could pick my lancec. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. (dated, transitive) 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.
  4. (ambitransitive) To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
    • to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
    • Naphtha lamps shed a weird light over a busy scene, for the work was being continued night and day. A score or so of sturdy navvies were shovelling and picking along the track.1912, Victor Whitechurch, Thrilling Stories of the Railway
  5. To screen.
  6. (informal) To intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player.
    • The pass was almost picked, but the tight end was able to hold on.

Proper noun capitalized: Pick

Pick (plural Picks)

  1. A surname.

pick meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

pick in Hindi

pickaxe
गैंती ga͠itī
to decide upon, from a set of options; to select
चुनना cunnā

pick in Tamil

pickaxe
கோடாரி kōṭāri
to grasp and pull with fingers
நோண்டு nōṇṭu
to remove a fruit or plant for consumption
பறி paṟi

pick in Urdu

کدال, چھانٹنا, چننا

pick in Bengali

বাছাই, গাঁইতি যন্ত্র, শ্রেষ্ঠ ব্যক্তি, সেরা অংশ, শ্রেষ্ঠ বস্তু, চয়ন করা
More languagesFewer languages
pick in Malayalam
കോടാലി kōṭāli
pick in Kannada
ಆರಿಸಿಕೊ, ಚುಚ್ಚು, ಕುತ್ತು, ಮೀಟು
pick in Punjabi
ਖੋਤਣਾ khotṇā
pick in Gujarati
વીણવું vīṇvũ
pick in Sanskrit
स्कुनाति skunā́ti, स्कु sku, स्वीकरोति svīkaroti
pick in Tagalog
manguha, kunin
pick in Arabic
مِعْوَل miʕwal, فَأْس faʔs
pick in Indonesian
petik, memetik
pick in Persian
کلنگ kolang

Examples of pick in a sentence

  • He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC:
  • He was charged with attempting to pick a pocket, and they found a silver snuff-box on him,--his own, my dear, his own, for he took snuff himself, and was very fond of it.1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 43, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard...
  • For the pocket in which Erskine kept this key was not the kind of pocket that Watt could pick.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with pick

Synonyms of pick

28 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pick

Forms of pick

Noun
pluralpicks
Verb
third-person singular presentpicks
present participlepicking
past participlepicked
pastpicked
second-person singular present (archaic)pickest
second-person singular past (archaic)pickedst
third-person singular present (archaic)picketh
Proper noun
pluralPicks

Past tense of pick: picked

Plural of pick: picks

Origin of pick

From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck. Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)). Compare also German Low German puken (“to pick out, rip out, pull away, extract”).

* As an English, Dutch, and German surname, related to pickaxe. * As a German surname, from Low German pick (“pitch”), itself ultimately from Latin pix. * As an English surname, from pike (“kind of fish”).

Words formed from pick

Phrases with pick

100 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with pick

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pick

What does pick mean?
Pick means a tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
What is pick in Hindi?
Pick in Hindi is गैंती (ga͠itī), चुनना (cunnā). See Pick meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pick in a sentence?
He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
What part of speech is pick?
Pick can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pick?
Pick is pronounced /pɪk/.
What is the plural of pick?
The plural of pick is picks.

Words near pick in the dictionary

  1. picine
  2. Picinich
  3. Piciniches
  4. picinninies
  5. picinniny
  6. pick
  7. pick 'em
  8. pick 'n' mix
  9. pick 'n' mixes
  10. pick a fight
  11. pick a hole in someone's coat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pick (page history and authors); Pick (page history and authors); pick (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pick (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pick (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖੋਤਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); વીણવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); स्कु (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-pick.wav, en-us-pick.ogg, en-au-pick.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.