pickings, taking
(noun) the act of someone who picks up or takes something; “the pickings were easy”; “clothing could be had for the taking”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
pickings
plural of picking
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, 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
26 April 2024
(noun) a viewpoint toward a city or other heavily populated area; “the dominant character of the cityscape is it poverty”
The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.
