Word.ws English Dictionary

picked up the pieces

picked up the pieces is the simple past and past participle of pick up the pieces.

Meaning of pick up the pieces

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc.
    • Picking up the pieces after the Suez disaster, the British found themselves getting used to the idea that they are not as big a power as they thought they were.1957 January 14, “Roberts' Rules of Order”, in Time Magazine

Questions about picked up the pieces

What is picked up the pieces the simple past and past participle of?
Picked up the pieces is the simple past and past participle of pick up the pieces.

Words near picked up the pieces in the dictionary

  1. picked up the ball and ran with it
  2. picked up the ball and run with it
  3. picked up the mantle
  4. picked up the pace
  5. picked up the phone
  6. picked up the pieces
  7. picked up the slack
  8. picked up the tab
  9. picked up the threads
  10. picked up the threads of
  11. picked up what someone was laying down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: picked up the pieces (page history and authors); pick up the pieces (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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