PICK, v.t. [L. pecto.]

1. A sharp pointed tool for digging or removing in small quantities. What the miners call chert and whern … is so hard that the picks will not touch it. – Woodward.
2. Choice; right of selection. You may have your pick.
3. Among printers, foul matter which collects on printing types from the balls, bad ink, or from the paper impressed.

1. To eat slowly or by morsels; to nibble. – Dryden.
2. To do any thing nicely or by attending to small things. – Dryden.

1. To pull off or pluck with the fingers something that grows or adheres to another thing; to separate by the hand, as fruit from trees; as, to pick apples or oranges; to pick strawberries.
2. To pull off or separate with the teeth, beak or claws; as, to pick flesh from a bone; hence,
3. To clean by the teeth, fingers or claws, or by a small instrument, by separating something that adheres; as, to pick a bone, to pick the ears.
4. To take up; to cause or seek industriously; as, to pick a quarrel.
5. To separate or pull asunder; to pull into small parcels by the fingers; to separate locks for loosening and cleaning; as, to pick wool.
6. To pierce; to strike with a pointed instrument; as, to pick an apple with a pin. – Bacon.
7. To strike with the bill or beak; to puncture. In this sense, we generally use peck.
8. To steal by taking out with the fingers or hands; as, to pick the pocket. – South.
9. To open by a pointed instrument; as, to pick a lock.
10. To select; to cull; to separate particular things from others; as, to pick the best men from a company. In this sense, the word is often followed by out. To pick off, to separate by the fingers or by a small pointed instrument. To pick out, to select; to separate individuals from numbers. To pick up, to take up with the fingers or beak; also, to take particular things here and there; to gather; to glean. To pick a hole in one's coat, to find fault.

1. To throw; to pitch.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   As high as I could pick my lance. Shak.

2. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
   
   

   Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore? Dryden.

3. A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
4. To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.
5. To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
6. A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, -- used by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.] also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
7. To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
8. To steal; to pilfer.
   
   
   "To keep my hands from picking and stealing." Book of Com. Prayer.

   To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. [Colloq. U.S.]

9. A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
   
   
   [Obs.] "Take down my buckler . . . and grind the pick on 't." Beau. *** Fl.
10. To open (a lock) as by a wire.
11. Choice] right of selection; as, to have one's pick.
    
    

    France and Russia have the pick of our stables. Ld. Lytton.

12. To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck; to gather, as fruit from a tree, flowers from the stalk, feathers from a fowl, etc.
13. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
14. To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth; as, to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket.
    
    

    Did you pick Master Slender's purse? Shak.

    He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems
    With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet. Cowper.

15. A particle of ink or paper imbedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and occasioning a spot on a printed sheet.
    
    
    MacKellar.
16. To choose; to select; to separate as choice or desirable; to cull; as, to pick one's company; to pick one's way; -- often with out.
    
    
    "One man picked out of ten thousand." Shak.
17. That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
18. To take up; esp., to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together; as, to pick rags; -- often with up; as, to pick up a ball or stones; to pick up information.
19. The blow which drives the shuttle, -- the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch.
    
    

    Pick dressing (Arch.), in cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions. -- Pick hammer, a pick with one end sharp and the other blunt, used by miners.

20. To trim.
    
    
    [Obs.] Chaucer.

    To pick at, to tease or vex by pertinacious annoyance. -- To pick a bone with. See under Bone. -- To pick a thank, to curry favor. [Obs.] Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To pick off. (a) To pluck; to remove by picking. (b) To shoot or bring down, one by one; as, sharpshooters pick off the enemy. -- To pick out. (a) To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors. (b) To select from a number or quantity. -- To pick to pieces, to pull apart piece by piece; hence [Colloq.], to analyze; esp., to criticize in detail. -- To pick a quarrel, to give occasion of quarrel intentionally. -- To pick up. (a) To take up, as with the fingers. (b) To get by repeated efforts; to gather here and there; as, to pick up a livelihood; to pick up news.