☝️ To choose 🏅 A choice 🥊 To provoke 🍏 To gather 🫛 To remove 🕵️ To steal 🏀 A basketball block ⛏️ A heavy tool ⛏️ To chip away 🎸 To pluck 🎸 A small plectrum 🦷 A cleaning tool 🥗 To nibble 🧺 A harvest 🧵 A thread

pick

14 5.3

A heavy tool with a wooden handle used to break rock

noun
/pɪk/

: pico

To dig deeper into the mine, the team relied on their heavy picks and shovels.
pick and shovel

Examples

Like an archaeologist, with her tiny pick, her little brush, her warm breath blowing the loosened dirt away.

Fiction book (1999)
The work is all done by hand, pick and shovel instead of dynamite and bulldozer.

Fiction book (1993)
Put the pick in there, Pete, and turn it 'round real neat.

Dune (1984)
"Then he went to the tool area, grabbed a pick, and started digging.

Fiction book (1995)
Carl began digging with a pick, using a shovel to clear the broken ice out of the hole.

Fiction book (1999)
The construction workers used a pick to break the hard ground before laying the foundation.
He swung the pick against the rocky surface, trying to clear the area for planting.

Synonyms

pickax

vspick

5 3.9

A heavy tool with a wooden handle and pointed metal ends for breaking hard ground or rocks

is a variant spelling identical in sense to the named tool

pickaxe

vspick

3 5.1

A heavy tool with a wooden handle and a pointed metal head for breaking hard ground or rock

is an alternate spelling or name with the same meaning

pick mattock

vspick

Specialized

1 8.6

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

is only the single pointed tool without the digging blade

pick-mattock

vspick

Specialized

8.4

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

focuses on a single pointed head rather than also having an adze

Idioms

to take your pick

21 3.6

Choose any one you want from the options

to pick on someone your own size

Informal

8 6.1

Challenge someone of similar size or strength instead of someone weaker

pick of the litter

Informal

6 3.7

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

to pick up the gauntlet

Informal

1 8.6

To accept a challenge and try to meet it

to pick one's battles

Informal

1 5.8

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

to pick up one's marbles

Informal

9.1

Leave a meeting or project because you are upset

to pick oneself up off the floor

Informal

6.1

To get better after a failure and start again

to pick up one's marbles and go home

Informal

9.9

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

Compounds

ice pick

25 3.5

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

pick-me-up

16 4.2

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

guitar pick

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

captain's pick

1 5.4

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

hoof pick

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

pick-me girl

Slur

9.9

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

How Heavy

sledgehammer

28 3.9

pick

14 5.3

mattock

1 9.0

trowel

9 4.8

Surface Forms

pick singular

picks plural

Etymology

Pick for the heavy tool (a pickaxe) is the direct name for that pointed instrument, so this pick is the big tool used to break rock or earth.