Pick Meaning
/pɪk/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
nounAn anchor.
Sentence Examples
I have a bone to pick with you.
Pick up your things and go away.
Pick a number from one to twenty.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She had to ____ the best apple from the basket to give to her teacher.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She was asked to ____ a number between one and ten for the guessing game at the party.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck. Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)). Compare also German Low German puken (“to pick out, rip out, pull away, extract”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night."
— 2021 December 26, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 41, column 2:
"Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't."
— c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
"France and Russia have the pick of our stables."
— 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?:
"‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’"
— 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 69:
"The judicious use of fire could have protected valuable nut trees, promoted the growth and seeding of grass and, if practised at a distance from their camps, even attracted herbivores to the sweet young pick."
— 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 232:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She had to ____ the best apple from the basket to give to her teacher.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She was asked to ____ a number between one and ten for the guessing game at the party.