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pick out

phraseB12 meaningsNot compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To pick out is to choose one carefully from many. Looking at all of them, and taking that one.

It splits round an object. There is a second and quite different sense meaning to distinguish, so picking out a face in a crowd or picking out a tune by ear means identifying it among everything else. Police use it precisely, and picking somebody out of a line-up is a formal identification. A third sense is decorative, since lettering picked out in gold has been highlighted.

Definitions of pick out

  1. 1phrasepick outTo select something carefully from a group.B1

    “Help me pick out a card for her.”

  2. 2phrasedistinguishTo distinguish something among others.B2

    “I could just pick out the far shore.”

Also accepted in games: select

Where it comes from

From pick + out. Compare stq uutpikke (“to pick out”), Dutch uitpikken (“to pick out”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 22 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word