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to pick

to pick

136 1.0
To gather fruit or flowers by hand
  • verb
  • /pɪk/
: recoger
  • Broadbent crouches by the trail and picks up a hunk of pale gray lichen.
  • pick fruit
  • pick apples
  • hand-picked

We need them to pick the crops down here.

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Examples

  • We need them to pick the crops down here.

  • You just wake up, pick your flowers, make bread.

  • Things get worse, and eventually we find ourselves picking fruit before it is really edible.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Ahead of us, women in shawls and small children are picking up coal along the road.

    Academic text (2011)
  • A handful of blueberries he has picked from the shrubs that hug the forest floor.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Striding to the mantel, he picked up the matching vase and smashed it to the floor.

    Academic text (2011)
  • In autumn, we will pick apples from the orchard.

  • The children love to pick wildflowers during our nature walks.

  • Farmers must pick the ripe tomatoes before the frost arrives.

Synonyms

to pluck
vsto pick
125 3.5

To pull something out quickly with the fingers

is general removal from growth place, not necessarily quick or sharp
to harvest
vsto pick
117 1.6

To gather ripe crops from the fields

is small-scale removal from plants rather than large organised crop collection
to pick off
vsto pick
25 4.3

Pull things away one at a time

is general gathering rather than taking single items sharply
to gather
vsto pick
22 1.6

Collect food like fruits, nuts, or plants from the wild

focuses on removing items from where they grow, not searching wild food
to handpick
vsto pick
1 3.7

Choose the best items by hand one by one

is ordinary removal from where things grow, not focused on choice

Idioms

Choose any one you want from the options

Challenge someone of similar size or strength instead of someone weaker

6 3.7

The best or most wanted one in a group, like the strongest puppy

1 8.6

To accept a challenge and try to meet it

1 5.8

To choose which problems to deal with instead of trying to solve every problem

Leave a meeting or project because you are upset

To get better after a failure and start again

To leave a group or activity because you do not get your way

Phrasal Verbs

∞ 2.5

To get something from a store or give someone a ride

∞ 1.0

To lift something or someone from the ground with your hands

776 2.6

To learn or notice something often by chance

303 2.0

Choose one person or thing from a group

to pick on
  • Informal
201 3.5

To say mean things to someone again and again because they seem weaker

198 3.0

To get better or stronger

185 3.9

To notice something that is not obvious

to pick up
  • Informal
114 3.9

To take someone to the police because they are suspected of a crime

71 3.0

Notice a sound or sight among other things

to pick up
  • NSFW
45 8.2

To meet someone to start a romantic or sexual relationship

to cherry-pick
  • Informal
37 6.3

To choose only the best people or things for yourself

to pick off
  • Offensive
36 8.0

Shoot and kill opponents one by one from a hidden place

34 2.8

To pay for something, often for someone else

25 4.3

Pull things away one at a time

25 3.8

To choose carefully by yourself for a special purpose

To move or work faster

21 3.8

To ask someone for ideas or advice about something they know well

to pick apart
  • Informal
17 5.2

To find faults in ideas or work by pointing out small problems

14 3.8

Pull at something with your fingers again and again, often nervously

10 5.7

Keep finding small faults in someone or their ideas

9 7.7

To open a lock without a key by using tools

4 3.6

To look through items carefully to choose the best or remove bad ones

3 3.4

To show a color or detail from another thing

2 7.0

Choose only data that supports an idea and ignore data that disagrees

2 4.6

Eat very small amounts of food when not feeling hungry

To start an earlier activity or conversation again after an interruption

Touching scabs again and again so they do not heal, sometimes meaning you reopen old hurts

to cherry-pick
  • Specialized
1 6.5

To copy one change from a code branch into another without copying other changes

1 4.0

To eat small bits of food by pecking like a bird

1 7.8

To put a needle into dropped or unfinished loops to fix knitting

1 4.2

Do something slowly and without interest, often doing only small parts

1 5.3

To put a finger in your nose to remove mucus

Compounds

25 3.5

A metal tool with a sharp point that you use to break blocks of ice

16 4.2

A drink or small activity that makes you feel more energetic when tired

5 2.9

A small flat piece for plucking or strumming guitar strings

pick-off
  • Specialized
1 7.5

A play where the pitcher or catcher throws quickly to tag a runner off base

A player chosen by a team's captain to play in a game

1 7.9

A small hooked tool to clean mud and stones from a horse's hoof

nose-pick
  • Offensive
1 8.6

Putting a finger inside your nose or a person who does this

Niemann-Pick disease
  • Specialized
1 9.8

A rare disease passed from parents that makes fat build up in the body's cells

pick mattock
  • Specialized
1 8.6

A tool with a pointed end and a flat blade for digging and breaking hard soil or rock

pick-mattock
  • Specialized
8.4

A hand tool with a pointed end and a flat blade for digging and breaking hard rocky soil

9.9

A girl who wants men's approval by putting herself or other women down

How Much

to reap
111 3.1
to harvest
117 1.6
to collect
768 1.1
to pick
136 1.0
to pluck
125 3.5

Surface Forms

pick infinitive
picked past
picked past participle
picking present participle
picks third person singular

Etymology

Pick used for gathering fruit comes from the idea of plucking with a small point or a finger, so to pick apples is to pull them off the tree by hand.