pick
/pɪk/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.08 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
Example Sentences
- "It's better to amble around, drop the "pick" for a lunchtime swim or beachcomb, then find a nice anchorage for the night."
- "Take down my buckler […] and grind the pick on 't."
- "France and Russia have the pick of our stables."
- "‘She's all African grass and Brahmans. There's not a blade of native pick left, except on the ridges.’"
- "The judicious use of fire could have protected valuable nut trees, promoted the growth and seeding of grass and, if practised at a distance from their camps, even attracted herbivores to the sweet young pick."
- "If it be in the smallest degree gritty, it clogs the form, and consequently produces a thick and imperfect impression; no pains should, therefore, be spared to render it perfectly smooth; it may then be made to work as clear and free from picks"
Etymology
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”). 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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
picks (plural)
picks (present, singular)
picking (participle, present)
picked (participle, past)
picked (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
picked (first person, past)
pickest (archaic, present)
picked (past, second person)
pickedst (archaic, past)
picketh (archaic, present)