Word.ws English Dictionary

pickin' and grinnin'

pickin' and grinnin' noun: vigorous playing of folk or country music on a stringed musical instrument, especially the guitar or banjo, while smiling broadly.

Noun

pickin' and grinnin' (uncountable)

  1. (US, idiomatic) Vigorous playing of folk or country music on a stringed musical instrument, especially the guitar or banjo, while smiling broadly.
    • From Kenny Rogers and Ronnie Milsap there was a lot less pickin’ and grinnin’ and a lot more soft rockers and heartbroken love ballads.1987 March 20, Scott Mervis, “Country Slickers”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 03 Jan 2009, page 19
    • In this city of guitars and grits, Andersen is the ambassador of pickin’ and grinnin’.2008 June 25, Joe Edwards, “Guitar-playing 'ambassador' greets visitors at Nashville's Hall of Fame”, in USA Today, retrieved 03 Jan 2009

Forms of pickin' and grinnin'

alternative formpicking and grinning

Questions about pickin' and grinnin'

What does pickin' and grinnin' mean?
Pickin' and grinnin' means vigorous playing of folk or country music on a stringed musical instrument, especially the guitar or banjo, while smiling broadly.
What part of speech is pickin' and grinnin'?
Pickin' and grinnin' is a noun.

Words near pickin' and grinnin' in the dictionary

  1. pickiest
  2. pickietar
  3. pickietars
  4. pickily
  5. pickin'
  6. pickin' and grinnin'
  7. pickiness
  8. picking
  9. picking a fight
  10. picking a hole in someone's coat
  11. picking a lane

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pickin' and grinnin' (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: En-au-pickin' and grinnin'.ogg.

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