“Picks” is a form of
pick
/pɪk/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms picks picking picked pickest pickedst picketh
- noun A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
- noun (nautical, slang) An anchor.
- noun A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
- noun A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
- noun A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
- noun (music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
- noun (obsolete) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
- noun A choice; ability to choose.
- verb To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails. “Don't pick at that scab.”
- verb To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground. “It's time to pick the tomatoes.”
- verb To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck. “She picked flowers in the meadow.”
- verb To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together. “to pick rags”
- verb To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth. “to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket”
- verb To decide upon, from a set of options; to select. “I'll pick the one with the nicest name.”
- verb (transitive) To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.
- verb (cricket) To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released. “He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.”
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
fling hurl bung cast chuck chunk cook dash dump feck jerk heave hield hoy huck hurtle launch lob peck peg choice selection picking cream woof weft filling plectrum plectron pickax
Etymology
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”).
* As an English, Dutch, and German surname, related to pickaxe.
* As a German surname, from Low German pick (“pitch”), itself ultimately from Latin pix.
* As an English surname, from pike (“kind of fish”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To throw; to pitch. [Obs.]
- verb 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.
- verb To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
- verb To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
Etymology [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.]
Etymology [F. pic a pickax, a pick. See Pick, and cf. Pike.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pick”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details