Part 262

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. [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.) 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.) 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) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.

8. (Weawing) 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.

Pick"a*back` (?), adv. On the back or shoulders; as, to ride pickback. [Written also pickapack, pickback, and pickpack.]

A woman stooping to take a child pickaback.

R,Jefferies.

Pick"a*nin`ny (?), n.; pl. Pickaninnies (#). [Cf. Sp. pequeÒo little, young.] A small child; especially, a negro or mulatto infant. [U.S. & West Indies]

Pick"a*pack` (?), adv. Pickaback.

{ Pick"ax`, Pick"axe` } (?), n. [A corruption of OE. pikois, pikeis, F. picois, fr. pic. See Pick, n.] A pick with a point at one end, a transverse edge or blade at the other, and a handle inserted at the middle; a hammer with a flattened end for driving wedges and a pointed end for piercing as it strikes. Shak.

Pick"back` (?), adv. On the back.

Pick"ed (?), a. 1. Pointed; sharp. "Picked and polished." Chapman.

Let the stake be made picked at the top.

Mortimer.

2. (Zoˆl.) Having a pike or spine on the back; -- said of certain fishes.

3. Carefully selected; chosen; as, picked men.

4. Fine; spruce; smart; precise; dianty. [Obs.] Shak.