to pick up
834
1.0
- phrasal verb
- /pɪk ʌp/
:
recoger
- Pick up your dog.
- pick up a book
- pick up a bag
- reach down to pick up
It's not actually picking up the barbell, right?
- It's not actually picking up the barbell, right?
- And so he picked her phone up to phone Andy Bell.
- I'm just going to pick the foundation up by the tubes.
- Now put that down and pick up the biology book.
- So in the tray, I picked the tray up and this was in the tray.
- Hey, Cosmos picked up the block and put it over there.
- I'm going to use a chopstick to pick up the fork.
- And then large plastic bags driving around, picking up roadkill.
- So let's take the little girl in the room who picks up a bright red fire truck.
- And in the moment, I pick up the bowl.
- But anyway, so that I pick up my finger, right, It's like rectangular.
Examples
-
I'm here to pick up my son.
-
Pick up the tablet.
-
I move in, pick up the food and head home to eat.
-
No, just pick her up and hold her is all.
-
Pick up your phone, baby.
-
The mayor's stopping by to pick up a check.
-
Pick up the baby.
-
Pick up the phone.
-
Pick up your coat!
-
I need to pick up the book from the table before we leave.
Synonyms
127
1.9
To lift something using a deep curved tool or your hand
107
1.1
To raise someone or something to a higher place
60
1.1
To take and hold something firmly with the hands
59
1.0
A quick action of taking something with your hand
56
2.0
To lift something up, often with a spoon or tool
47
2.8
To lift or pick up something quickly with your hand
43
2.1
Bring things together by picking them up with your hands
25
1.0
To take something off a surface carefully
24
2.5
To take something in your hand
24
4.6
To grab something quickly, often before someone else
21
3.1
Grab something or someone with your hands
15
2.0
To grasp something with your hands
7
2.1
To lift something or someone to a higher place
5
2.7
To take something out by picking it up, often carefully or with a tool
3
4.5
To lift something heavy with a lot of effort
1
4.2
Pick something up quickly by moving down fast
1
6.1
To lift something with effort to see how heavy it is
Antonyms
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
pick + up
The police sense 'to take someone into custody' is a pragmatic extension of the basic, transparent meaning 'pick up' = 'collect/take someone' (pick + up). However, the specific legal sense 'arrest' is a specialised interpretation that is not fully predictable from the parts alone and typically requires contextual or cultural knowledge, so it is only partially transparent to learners.
Etymology
Pick up comes from the simple action of using your hand to pick something and move it up toward you, like lifting a book from a table. So it means 'to lift' or take something from a surface.