In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
PICKING
picking
(noun) the act of picking (crops or fruit or hops etc.)
picking, pick
(noun) the quantity of a crop that is harvested; “he sent the first picking of berries to the market”; “it was the biggest peach pick in years”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Verb
picking
present participle of pick
Noun
picking (plural pickings)
A gathering to pick fruit.
(usually, pluralized) Items remaining after others have selected the best; scraps, as of food.
(usually, pluralized) Income or other gains, especially if obtained in an unscrupulous or objectionable manner.
Something picked or pulled out.
The act of making a choice; selection.
The final finishing of woven fabrics by removing burs, etc.
The removal of defects from electrotype plates.
Dabbing in stoneworking.
Synonyms
• (items remaining after others have selected the best): leftovers
• (unscrupulously acquired gains): See Thesaurus:booty
Source: Wiktionary
Pick"ing, 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.
Definition: The pulverized shells of oysters used in making walks. [Eng.] Simmonds.
6. (Mining)
Definition: Rough sorting of ore.
7. Overburned bricks. Simmonds.
Pick"ing, a.
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. Dryden. Picking peg. (Weaving) See Picker, n., 3.
PICK
Pick, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Picked; p. pr. & vb. n. Picking.] Etym: [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.]
1. To throw; to pitch. [Obs.] As high as I could pick my lance. Shak.
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 Shak. He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet. Cowper.
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." Shak.
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.] Chaucer. 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.] Robynson (More's Utopia).
– 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.(c) to acquire (an infectious disease); as, to pick up a cold on the airplane. (d) To meet (a person) and induce to accompany one; as, to pick up a date at the mall. [See several other defs in MW10]
Pick, v. i.
1. To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. Why stand'st thou picking Is thy palate sore Dryden.
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." Book of Com. Prayer. To pick up, to improve by degrees; as, he is picking up in health or business. [Colloq. U.S.]
Pick, n. Etym: [F. pic a pickax, a pick. See Pick, and cf. Pike.]
1. A sharp-pointed tool for picking; -- often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
2. (Mining & Mech.)
Definition: A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, -- used by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
3. A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler. [Obs.] "Take down my buckler . . . and grind the pick on 't." Beau. & Fl.
4. Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick. France and Russia have the pick of our stables. Ld. Lytton.
5. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
6. (Print.)
Definition: A particle of ink or paper imbedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and occasioning a spot on a printed sheet. MacKellar.
7. (Painting)
Definition: That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
8. (Weawing)
Definition: The blow which drives the shuttle, -- the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch. Pick dressing (Arch.), in cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions.
– Pick hammer, a pick with one end sharp and the other blunt, used by miners.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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