Etimology
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”)).
noun
pick (plural picks)
A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
(nautical, slang) An anchor.
A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
(music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
(obsolete) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
A choice; ability to choose.
That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
(Australia) Pasture; feed, for animals. [from 20th c.]
(basketball) A screen.
(lacrosse) An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
(American football) An interception.
(baseball) A good defensive play by an infielder.
(baseball) A pickoff.
(printing, 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.
(art, painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
(weaving) 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.
Examples
It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night.
Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't.
France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’
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.
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 picks
so many picks to an inch
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.
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.
To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
(transitive) To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
(cricket) 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.
(music) To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
To steal; to pilfer.
(obsolete) To throw; to pitch.
(dated) 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.
(transitive, intransitive) To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
(basketball) To screen.
(American football, informal) To intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player.
Examples
Don't pick at that scab.
He picked his nose.
It's time to pick the tomatoes.
She picked flowers in the meadow.
to pick feathers from a fowl
to pick rags
to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket
Did you pick Master Slender's purse?
He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
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.
For the pocket in which Erskine kept this key was not the kind of pocket that Watt could pick. For it was no ordinary pocket, no, but a secret one, sewn on to the front of Erskine's underhose.
I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
He picked a tune on his banjo.
The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.
Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?
I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs.
to keep my hands from picking and stealing
as high as I could pick my lance
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.
The pass was almost picked, but the tight end was able to hold on.