pick

Everyday

1. To pick is to take something with your fingers; to pick up is to lift it and get it. tree →
2. To pick fruit or flowers is to pull them off the plant. tree →
3. To pick is to choose: «Pick a card». tree →
4. To pick someone up is to collect them in a car. tree →
5. Your pick is your choice. tree →
6. To pick can also mean to peck, as a bird does with its beak. tree →

In the lessons

to get more things by taking them up or from a plant; «pick» can also mean choose; phrases: «pick up», «pick out», «pick on» (be unkind to), «take your pick»

Examples

• Zoe picks up 3 more marbles. tree →
• Ben picked 14 apples from the tree. tree →
• Mia picks 5 flowers every day. tree →
• Pick a number from 1 to 10. tree →
• Mum picks me up from school at 3. tree →
• Please pick up your toys. tree →
• Take your pick of the cakes. tree →
• It is not kind to pick on younger children. tree →
• Haste ye, haste ye!--pick, pick, pick!’ tree →

Note

«picks up N more» adds N to the one who picks them up. Trap: «pick a number» means choose, not add. «picks N a day for D days» is N × D. Safety: never pick and eat wild berries or mushrooms without an adult.

In Jewish tradition

Here it means to peck out, as birds of prey do.

Interpretation. Proverbs warns that one who mocks parents will come to a bad end, and the tradition stresses honoring father and mother.

Examples

• The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young vultures shall eat it. (Writings PRO.30.17, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

«picks up N more» adds N to the one who picks them up. Trap: «pick a number» means choose, not add. «picks N a day for D days» is N × D. Safety: never pick and eat wild berries or mushrooms without an adult.