to pick off
9
4.3
- phrasal verb
- /pɪk ɔf/
:
quitar
- Using tweezers, she picked off the splinter that was lodged in her finger.
- picking off a scab
- pick off leaves
- pick off blossoms
Nuts, seeds, I can just pick it right off the vine and it works for me.
- Nuts, seeds, I can just pick it right off the vine and it works for me.
- He literally picked the entire fabric off and it's just destroyed.
- So I'm going to let you pick it off.
- I'm sorry, what if I was to just pick one of these little petals off of the flower?
- So that it would be nearly impossible to see this film and want to pick it off.
- Now, if it's just a couple of scale insects here and there, you can try picking them off, squishing them, destroying them.
- I'd get really intense hang nails and then I'd try and pick them off and I'd end up just like my whole nail off.
- He puts a chopstick through like the actual kernels because they're all connected to the to the cob, picks it off and eats it like that.
- And then he's just like, no, OK, picks the hair off, no icon and takes it.
Examples
-
And these birds would pick the bugs off the buffalo's head.
-
I go to all the plants in a big building and water them, wash them, and pick off their dead leaves.
Fiction book (1996) -
We should be able to pick off several of those seats.
Blog text (25) -
Nuts, seeds, I can just pick it right off the vine and it works for me.
-
I've picked apples off it myself, and they make a good pie.
Fiction book (1997) -
Spying a blackberry bush halfway along the path, he reached in, picked off a few of the ripest, and handed them back.
Fiction book (1994) -
Passing a low fence draped with honeysuckle, Constance picked off a strand to smell as she walked.
Fiction book (1994) -
With her fingernail, Tatisa picked off a sequin that had gotten caught in the mesh of her stocking.
Fiction book (1995) -
She carefully picked off the dead leaves from the plant to promote new growth.
-
After the storm, he went outside to pick off the broken branches from the garden.
Synonyms
∞
1.5
To remove clothes or something from your body
834
1.0
To lift something or someone from the ground with your hands
523
2.7
To take something out of a place, often with effort
241
1.4
To remove unwanted parts like seeds or stems
196
4.1
To pull something suddenly and hard
111
3.2
To take something out, often with effort, for example weeds or hidden facts
80
4.5
To pull something away quickly and roughly
77
3.5
To pull something out quickly with the fingers
68
4.4
To pull something out quickly and with force, often to remove it completely
41
2.7
To take something off from where it is attached
25
1.0
To take something off a surface carefully
24
4.8
To pull something out with force
12
3.0
To pull something off quickly until it rips
11
2.8
To take off quickly and easily, especially clothes or small items
8
3.4
To take off the outer layer by pulling it
7
3.7
To pull something away from where it is, for example a bandage or curtain
6
4.5
To pull something off quickly with force
5
2.7
To take something out by picking it up, often carefully or with a tool
3
6.0
Remove small hairs or splinters from the skin using tweezers
1
4.2
To pull something away carefully, for example a bandage or tablecloth
To take off or get rid of something quickly and without care
Antonyms
How Forceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to remove by pulling or plucking away' is directly derivable from combining 'pick' (to remove or pluck) with the particle 'off' (indicating removal or away). This is a compositional phrasal-verb pattern common in English (and paralleled in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Pick off comes from the everyday action of picking something off a surface, like pulling weeds or berries away one at a time. So the phrase means 'to remove something by pulling or plucking it away sharply, especially one at a time'.