v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Picked p. pr. & vb. n. Picking. ] [ OE. picken, pikken, to prick, peck; akin to Icel. pikka, Sw. picka, Dan. pikke, D. pikken, G. picken, F. piquer, W. pigo. Cf. Peck, v., Pike, Pitch to throw. ] 1. To throw; to pitch. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

As high as I could pick my lance. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To open (a lock) as by a wire. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Did you pick Master Slender's purse? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems
With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. To trim. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. [ 1913 Webster ]

Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore? Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To steal; to pilfer. “To keep my hands from picking and stealing.” Book of Com. Prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. [ Colloq. U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. pic a pickax, a pick. See Pick, and cf. Pike. ] 1. A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mining & Mech.) A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, -- used for digging ino the ground by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick; in cat breeding, the owner of a stud gets the pick of the litter. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

France and Russia have the pick of our stables. Ld. Lytton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Hence: That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Print.) 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Weaving) 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. On the back or shoulders; as, to ride pickback. [ Written also pickapack, pickback, and pickpack. ] Syn. -- piggyback. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

A woman stooping to take a child pickaback. R, Jefferies. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Pickaninnies [ Cf. Sp. pequeño little, young. ] A small child; especially, a negro or mulatto infant. Now (2001) used primarily in the latter sense, and in that sense often considered derogatory. [ U.S. & West Indies ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Pickaback. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ A corruption of OE. pikois, pikeis, F. picois, fr. pic. See Pick, n. ] A pick with a point at one end, a transverse edge or blade at the other, and a handle inserted at the middle; a hammer with a flattened end for driving wedges and a pointed end for piercing as it strikes. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. On the back. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Pointed; sharp. “Picked and polished.” Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let the stake be made picked at the top. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) Having a pike or spine on the back; -- said of certain fishes. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Carefully selected; chosen; as, picked men. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Fine; spruce; smart; precise; dianty. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Picked dogfish. (Zool.) See under Dogfish. --
Picked out, ornamented or relieved with lines, or the like, of a different, usually a lighter, color; as, a carriage body dark green, picked out with red. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The state of being sharpened; pointedness. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fineness; spruceness; smartness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Too much pickedness is not manly. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]