Word.ws English Dictionary

pickups

pickups is the plural of pickup.

Meaning of pickup

Noun

pickup (countable and uncountable, plural pickups)

  1. In a record player, an electromagnetic component that converts the needle vibrations into an electrical signal.
    Synonyms:
    phono cartridge
  2. Electromagnetic coil receiver of metal string oscillations.
  3. The reception of sound, etc. by such a device.
    • This microphone has very weak pickup.
  4. (attributive, usually) Impromptu or ad hoc, especially of sports games and teams made up of randomly selected players.
    • Rather than join a basketball league, James decided to play pickup.
  5. An instance of approaching someone and engaging in romantic flirtation and courting with the intent to pursue romance, a date, or a sexual encounter.
    • Hey, thanks for the drink, but if this is a pickup, I'm not interested.
  6. A person successfully approached in this manner for romance or sex.
    • "Good Lord! I'm not stopping you from taking on all the pick-ups that come your way."1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 4

See all 16 meanings of pickup

Phrases with pickups

Questions about pickups

What is pickups the plural of?
Pickups is the plural of pickup.

Words near pickups in the dictionary

  1. pickup lines
  2. pickup rider
  3. pickup truck
  4. pickup trucks
  5. pickupable
  6. pickups
  7. Pickwick
  8. pickwickian
  9. Pickwickian syndrome
  10. Pickwickianism
  11. Pickwickianly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pickups (page history and authors); pickup (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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Cite this entry: “pickups.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pickups. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.