Other forms: picked, picks, picking
To pick is to choose one out of several: the film for tonight, a card from the fan the magician holds out, the shortest queue at the checkout. It is also what you do to fruit — you pick apples off the tree and strawberries off the plant.
Pick is the everyday word; choose is a step up and select is a step above that, which is why a friend says pick one and a form says select one. With fingers you pick at things: pick a scab, pick your nose, pick at your dinner without really eating it. A thief picks a lock and picks pockets, and someone spoiling for trouble picks a fight. The phrasal verbs do heavy work — pick up a parcel, pick up a language, pick up the phone, and pick on someone, which means to bully them. As a noun it is your choice: take your pick, or the pick of the bunch.
1verbchooseTo choose one or more from a group.~23%
“Pick a card and don't show it to me.”
synonyms: choose, select
2verbpickTo pull fruit, flowers or leaves off a plant.~6%
“We picked blackberries along the hedge all afternoon.”
3verbfingersTo pull small pieces off something with your fingers or a point.~2%
“Stop picking at the paint on the door.”
4verbopenTo open a lock without a key, using a thin tool.~17%
“He picked the lock in under a minute.”
5nounchoiceA choice, or the best one in a group.~29%
“There were six puppies and she had first pick.”
synonyms: choice
6nounflatA small flat piece of plastic for playing a guitar; a plectrum.~23%
“He dropped his pick through the sound hole.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 23 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense (6 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: select
Pick comes through Middle English piken from Old English piccian and pican, "to pick, prick, pluck", and back to Proto-Germanic pikkona, "to pick, peck, prick, knock". Peck and pitch are the same word arriving by other routes. The oldest picture is a beak or a sharp point striking something, and that point is still there when you pick at a scab.
Proto-Indo-European
*bew-
Proto-Germanic
*pikkōną — to pick, peck, prick, knock
Proto-West Germanic
*pikkōn
Old English
*piccian
Middle English
piken
English, today
pick
Built from
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”). a 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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA