PICK, verb transitive [Latin pecto.]

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.

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.

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.

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.

PICK, verb intransitive To eat slowly or by morsels; to nibble.

1. To do any thing nicely or by attending to small things.

PICK, noun 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.

1. Choice; right of selection. You may have your pick

2. Among printers, foul matter which collects on printing types from the balls, bad ink, or from the paper impressed.