picked
/pɪkt/
picked is the simple past and past participle of pick.
Adjective
picked (comparative more picked, superlative most picked)
- Having a pick, or a particular number/type of pick (in any sense of the word)
- Chosen; selected.
- For instance, in the year 1582 Akbar, who was a philosopher and a humorist as well as a model ruler, sent an invitation to the 'wise men among the Franks' at Goa to journey to Agra, there to meet in public controversy before him a picked band of Mohammedan mullas and prove the superiority of their...1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
- Played by picking the strings
- Having a pike or spine on the back.
- the picked dogfish
- fine; spruce; smart; precise; dainty
- He is too / picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, / too peregrinate, as I may call it.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Why then I suck my teeth and catechize / My picked man of countries:c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- pointed; sharp
- […] an useful bow a skilful bowyer wrought, / Which picked and polished both the ends he hid with horns of gold.[1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer...
- A very good way to take them, is to drive a stake into the ground about four foot high above the surface of the earth: Let the stake be made picked at the top, that the jay may not settle on it.1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC
Meaning of pick
Verb
pick (third-person singular simple present picks, present participle picking, simple past and past participle picked)
- To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
- Don't pick at that scab.
- 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.
- To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
- She picked flowers in the meadow.
- To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
- to pick rags
- 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
- To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
- I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
Forms of picked
| comparative | more picked |
|---|---|
| superlative | most picked |
Words formed from picked
- handpicked
- hand-picked
- pickedness
- picked-strings
- prepicked
Phrases with picked
- picked at
- picked on
- picked up
- picked off
- picked out
- hand picked
- lock picked
- picked over
- picked apart
- picked fault
- picked holes
- picked it up
44 more phrasesFewer phrases
- picked oakum
- picked sides
- picked up on
- cherry picked
- picked a lane
- picked fights
- picked a fight
- picked away at
- picked corners
- picked flowers
- picked through
- picked quarrels
- picked up steam
- picked a quarrel
- picked and chose
- picked one's way
- picked and chosen
- picked and passed
- picked from a hat
- picked gooseberry
- picked one's nose
- picked up the tab
- picked up stitches
- picked up the pace
- picked out of a hat
- picked up the phone
- picked up the slack
- picked one's battles
- picked up the mantle
- picked up the pieces
- picked up the threads
- picked someone's brain
- picked the wrong horse
- picked up one's crumbs
- picked bids off the wall
- picked up the threads of
- picked a hole in someone's coat
- picked oneself up off the floor
- picked up the ball and ran with it
- picked up the ball and run with it
- picked up one's marbles and gone home
- picked up one's marbles and went home
- picked up what someone was laying down
- picked up what someone was putting down
Words that rhyme with picked
Questions about picked
- What does picked mean?
- Picked means having a pick, or a particular number/type of pick (in any sense of the word).
- What is picked the simple past and past participle of?
- Picked is the simple past and past participle of pick.
- What part of speech is picked?
- Picked is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce picked?
- Picked is pronounced /pɪkt/.
Words near picked in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: picked (page history and authors); pick (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-picked.ogg.
Cite this entry: “picked.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/picked. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.