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Picking   /pˈɪkɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Pick  v. t.  (past & past part. picked; pres. part. picking)  
1.
To throw; to pitch. (Obs.) "As high as I could pick my lance."
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.
3.
To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points; as, to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.
4.
To open (a lock) as by a wire.
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.
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. "Did you pick Master Slender's purse?" "He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet."
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."
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.
9.
To trim. (Obs.)
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.)
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.


Pick  v. i.  
1.
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. "Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy palate sore?"
2.
To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
3.
To steal; to pilfer. "To keep my hands from picking and stealing."
To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. (Colloq. U.S.)


noun
Picking  n.  
1.
The act of digging or breaking up, as with a pick.
2.
The act of choosing, plucking, or gathering.
3.
That which is, or may be, picked or gleaned.
4.
Pilfering; also, that which is pilfered.
5.
pl. The pulverized shells of oysters used in making walks. (Eng.)
6.
(Mining) Rough sorting of ore.
7.
Overburned bricks.


adjective
Picking  adj.  
1.
Done or made as with a pointed tool; as, a picking sound.
2.
Nice; careful. (Obs.) " was too warm on picking work to dwell."
Picking peg. (Weaving) See Picker, n., 3.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Picking" Quotes from Famous Books



... estate of Silkborg, and sometimes even to the distant town of Randers. There was no one under whose care he could leave Little Christina; so she was almost always with him in his boat, or playing in the wood among the blossoming heath, or picking the ripe wild berries. Sometimes, when her father had to go as far as the town, he would take Little Christina, who was a year younger than Ib, across the heath to the cottage of Jeppe Jans, and leave ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen
... Mr. Black burst in through the opening in the wall and, picking Adrian up in his arms as though he had been a baby, started on a run with him for the ...
— The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz - Or, Upholding the Honor of the Stars and Stripes • Frank Fowler
... ourselves about in several groups among pavements and columns of temples, (the most perfect of which are in the Acropolis,) sepulchres, cisterns, and quarries, picking up fragments of pottery, with some pattern work (not highly ornamental, however) upon them, and tesserae or the cubes of tesselated pavement, such as may be found all over Palestine. The Bedaween call them muzzateem or muzzameet indifferently. There were some good Corinthian capitals, ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn
... newspaper article, a conversation overheard - sometimes physical: a little fte, carrying on their harassing and tormenting game, constantly repeating and circling around the same facts and words, throughout entire sleepless nights, gnawing and picking at these never satiating subjects, so offensive and yet so attractive, as a dog gnaws at an old ...
— The Bride of Dreams • Frederik van Eeden
... North how goes the season? The winter is perchance just breaking up. The old frost king is just striking, or preparing to strike, his tents. The ice is going out of the rivers, and the first steamboat on the Hudson is picking its way through the blue lanes and channels. The white gulls are making excursions up from the bay, to see what the prospects are. In the lumber countries, along the upper Kennebec and Penobscot, and along the northern Hudson, ...
— Winter Sunshine • John Burroughs


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