Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To select from a group.
  • intransitive verb To gather in; harvest.
  • intransitive verb To gather the harvest from.
  • intransitive verb To remove the outer covering of; pluck.
  • intransitive verb To tear off bit by bit.
  • intransitive verb To remove extraneous matter from (the teeth, for example).
  • intransitive verb To poke and pull at (something) with the fingers.
  • intransitive verb To break up, separate, or detach by means of a sharp pointed instrument.
  • intransitive verb To pierce or make (a hole) with a sharp pointed instrument.
  • intransitive verb To take up (food) with the beak; peck.
  • intransitive verb To steal the contents of.
  • intransitive verb To open (a lock) without the use of a key.
  • intransitive verb To provoke.
  • intransitive verb To pluck (an instrument's strings).
  • intransitive verb To play (an instrument) by plucking its strings.
  • intransitive verb To play (a tune) in this manner.
  • intransitive verb To decide with care or forethought.
  • intransitive verb To work with a pick.
  • intransitive verb To find fault or make petty criticisms; carp.
  • intransitive verb To be harvested or gathered.
  • noun The act of picking, especially with a sharp pointed instrument.
  • noun The act of selecting or choosing; choice.
  • noun Something selected as the most desirable; the best or choicest part.
  • noun The amount or quantity of a crop that is picked by hand.
  • noun Sports An interception of a pass.
  • noun Basketball A screen.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English piken, to prick, from Old English *pīcian, to prick, and from Old French piquer, to pierce (from Vulgar Latin *piccāre; see pique).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dialectal, from pick, to pitch, thrust, variant of pitch.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pik, variant of pike, sharp point; see pike.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English picken, pikken, from Old English *pīcian, pȳcan ("to pick, prick, pluck"), from Proto-Germanic *pikōnan, *pūkijanan (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *beu-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Cognate with Dutch pikken ("to pick"), German picken ("to pick, peck"), Icelandic pikka ("to pick, prick").

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Examples

  • Oh, the night before last night i found out that one of my friends had an eating disorder .. like she has this stupid class and she had to make one of those little origami game things. .you know…. the square thing where you pick squares and move your fingers and then you get to peel up the one you pick…

    aleighk21 Diary Entry aleighk21 2003

  • If I am not mistaken (and as things turned out I am sure I was right) the words were: _Gather gather, pick pick_, or _quick quick_.

    The Five Jars 1899

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • I hate cold weather but love football and basketball given that mo williams runs the pick & roll quite effectively, i actually expect to see the cavs run it more than less. this is not necessarily a bad thing - i liken the pick and roll to the ruy lopez opening in chess - not particularly subtle, but any thing less than perfect defense usually leads to an advantage for the offense. case in point, the celtics usually ran the pick and roll - often more than once per possession by multiple players against the lakers - who never did figure out how to stop it. imagine lebron starting the pick and roll - and when the lane is packed, passing out to williams at the top of the key and then setting the * pick* on the pick and roll, visualize the mismatch when the smaller defender tries to cover lebron cutting to the basket. finally, if someone can either get pavlovic's dad in cleveland for the season or get sasha married off (windhorst has noted that sasha playes better when he has family in town - and papa pavlovic was a european star), have pavlovic run the pick and roll; my take is that he prefers to shoot the 3 off the dribble vs. spotting up. and we still have wally and gibson spotting up from the outside. the pick and roll forces the opponent to play good team defense while allowing offensive players to take a breather - especially on our team, any single player dogging it on defense leads to a team breakdown. so my take is that hopefully mo will run the pick and roll which will give lebron a breather on various offensive possessions.

    MVN 2008

  • That said, I think the Palin pick is odd because she has basically no experience or credentials to hold national executive office.

    14 Important Science Questions 2008

Comments

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  • A slight twitch on the reins, and a prod from the Monk’s heels and they were off, picking their way

    carefully down the rocky incline.

    – Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

    August 4, 2009

  • Is that perhaps an instance of catachresis? (As described here.)

    October 24, 2009