Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

-s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
-ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
-ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

pick off

verb, noun

Forms picks off picking off picked off pick offs

verb (literally) To remove by picking. “Before you recycle the bottle you need to pick off the label.”
verb To dispose of tasks, obstacles, opponents etc. precisely, one by one. “Let's pick off these issues starting from the top.”
verb To shoot one by one. “The sniper picked off the incoming police one at a time.”
verb (baseball) To throw out a runner by tagging them whilst they are not in contact with any of the three bases or home plate. “The pitcher attempted to pick off the runner at first, but he was safe.”
verb To intercept, such as a ball in flight.
noun (baseball) An instance of throwing out a batter leading off base. “The final out of the game was determined by a pick off.”

Synonyms

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “pick off”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details