Pick

verb. (old colloquial: now wrestlers’).—1.  To shoot; to fling.—BEE (1823).

  1530.  PALSGRAVE, Langue Francoyse [HALLIWELL]. I holde a grote I PYCKE as farre with an arrowe as you.

  1610.  SHAKESPEARE, Coriolanus, i. 1.

  2.  (old: now colloquial).—To pilfer; to choose thievishly: also PICKEER, but, usually TO PICK AND CUT or TO PICK POCKETS. Also as subs. (or PICKING) = petty larceny (GROSE, 1785): cf. (Prayer Book); ‘Keep my hands from PICKING and stealing.’ Hence PICKER (PICKER-UP or PICKEERER) = (1) a petty thief; and (2, in pl.)—the fingers (B. E., c. 1696). The same idea (stealthy, underhand) occurs in PICK-PENNY, PICK-THANK, PICK-PURSE, &c. (all of which see). See PRIG.

  d. 1400.  CHAUCER, The Legend of Good Women, ‘Phyllis,’ 2456. [He] PIKED of her al the good he mighte.

  1440.  Promptorium Parvulorum, s.v. PYKARE, lytylle theef, furculus.

  1503.  Acts of Parliament [quoted by T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT,]. Theves and PIKARS.

  d. 1529.  SKELTON, The Bowge of Courte, 236. To kepe him frome PYKYNGE it was a grete payne. Ibid., Maner of the World, 130. PICKERS OF PURSES and males [bag or wallet]. Ibid., Garlande of Laurell, 184. Some be called crafty that can PYKE A PURSE.

  1550.  T. LEVER, Sermons [ARBER], 38. PICKINGE theft is lesse than murtheryng robrye.

  1675.  D. URE, The History of Rutherglen and East-Kilbride [Act Counc.] (1793), 74. Whaevir beis found out sheiring, leiding, or doeing any worke amongst the victwall, befor the bell ringing in the morneing, and efter the ringing thairof at night, Shall … be repute and holden as a PYCKER, and one that wrongeth there neighbors.

  d. 1555.  LATIMER, Sermons [Parker Society], 452. I had of late occasion to speak of PICKING and stealing.

  1577.  HOLINSHED, Chronicles [NARES]. Thefte and PICKERIE were quite suppressed.

  1582.  HAKLUYT, Voyages, I. 241. If he be a PICKER or a cutpurse … the second time he is taken he hath a piece of his Nose cut off.

  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iii. 2. By these PICKERS and stealers. Ibid., Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1. Pistol, did you PICK Master Slender’s PURSE. Ibid. (1604), Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. In this time of lethargy I PICKED AND CUT most of their festival purses.

  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Picoree, PICCORY, forraging, ransacking. Ibid., Picorer, to forrage, rifle, rob, or prey upon the poor husbandman.

  1660.  HOWELL, Lexicon Tetraglotton, s.v. PICAROON.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 55. They PICKED MY POCKET of my ring. Ibid., 173. Moralez … had conned over the pretty PICKINGS to be made out of this juggle.

  1754–64.  J. ERSKINE, An institute of the Law of Scotland, B. iv., Tit. 4, s. 50. The stealing of trifles, which in our law-language is styled PICKERY, has never been punished by the usage of Scotland, but by imprisonment, scourging, or other corporal punishment, unless it was attended with aggravating circumstances.

  1808.  JAMIESON, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. Scot. Proverb. It is ill to be called a thief and aye found PIKING.

  1878.  R. L. STEVENSON, Edinburgh (1894), I. 29. Slinking from a magistrate’s supper-room to a thieves’ ken, and PICKEERING among the closes by the flicker of a dark lamp.

  Expressions more or less colloquial are: TO PICK A BONE (CROW or MATTER) = to seek a quarrel: see BONE, CROW, and PLUCK; TO PICK UP = (1) to improve gradually: as from illness or failure; (2) to make acquaintance with, or accost: usually in disparagement of the person accosted—sharpers, street walkers, and such like PICK UP ‘flats’ or ‘culls’; (3) to get casually; and, generally, (4) to impose upon or take an advantage in a contract or bargain (BEE, 1823); TO PICK FLIES OFF (tailors’) = to fault-find; TO PICK OUT ROBINS’ EYES (tailors’) = to side-stitch black cloth or fine material; TO PICK OFF (general) = (1) to aim with effect, and (2) to wound or kill; TO PICK ON = to disturb, to nag; TO PICK UP = to put in order: as a room; TO PICK A BIT = to eat mincingly; TO PICK AND CHOOSE = to select with discrimination; TO PICK THE BRAINS (or MIND) = to steal ideas; to plagiarise; TO PICK HOLES (or A FAULT) = to fault-find: hence PICK-FAULT = a censorious fault-finder; TO PICK A QUARREL = to make offence: hence PICK-QUARREL = a cantankerous person; TO PICK AT = to nag; and so forth. See also PICK-THANK and PICK-PURSE.

  1321.  Poem on the Evil Times of Edward II. [Camden Society, The Political Songs of England, 334, line 238].

  1448–60.  Paston Letters [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 288–90. In the Paston Letters we mark the lingering traces of the Norfolk dialect soon to vanish from the correspondence of the educated. Among the (new) verbs may be remarked go lose (loose), PEKE A QUARRELL, &c.].

  d. 1529.  SKELTON, Agaynste a Comely Coystrowne, 35. A bungler, a brawler, a PYKER OF QUARELLYS. Ibid., The Bowge of Courte, 314. Fyrste PYCKE A QUARELL, and fall oute with hym then.

  1530.  TYNDALE, Works [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 427. Tyndale talks of a PICK-QUARREL].

  15[?].  R. HYRDE, trans. Vives’s Instruction of a Christian Woman (1541), fol. 138b. They medle with other folkes busines, and gyue counsayle, as though they were great sages, and exhort and giue preceptes, rebuke and correcte, PYKE FAUTES.

  1579.  J. LYLY, Euphues [ARBER], 246. Men PICKE THY MINDE out of thy hands.

  1581.  J. LYLY, Euphues, ‘The Anatomy of Wit,’ 107. As I am not minded to PICKE A THANK with the one, so am I not determined to PICKE A QUARRELL with the other.

  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well that Ends Well, iv. 5. We may PICK a thousand salads ere we light on such another herb. Ibid., 1 Henry IV., iii. 3. You owe me money, Sir John; and now you PICK A QUARREL to beguile me of it. Ibid. (1609), Pericles, iv. 2. Therefore, if in our youths we could PICK UP some pretty estate, ’twere not amiss to keep our door hatched.

  1612.  BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Coxcomb, iii. 3.

  1673.  WYCHERLEY, The Gentleman Dancing-Master, ii. 2.

  1680.  R. NORTH, The Lives of the Norths [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 118: There are the Verbs take fire, go to the expence, PICK HOLES, kidnap].

  1709.  DAMPIER, Voyages, II. i. 167. By this trade the Freemen of Malacca PICK UP a good livelihood.

  c. 1719.  ADDISON, Vision of Mirza. When I was at Grand Cairo, I PICKED UP several oriental manuscripts which I have still by me.

  1730.  VANBRUGH, The Provoked Husband, iv. Feyther, an you doan’t come quickly the meat will be coaled; and I’d fain PICK A BIT with you.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE (1866), 169]. I halted … to recruit a little under the trees. At one of these baits I PICKED UP two young gentlemen who were chatting at their ease. Ibid., 375. As long as I had money … my landlord was cap in hand; but … the funds low he became high and mighty, PICKED A German QUARREL with me, and … begged … me to march out of his house.

  1767.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN], 25. Children and chickens must be always PICKING.

  1786.  CAPT. C. MORRIS, Lyra Urbanica (1848), I. 80–2, ‘The Social Board.’

  c. 1790.  The Busy Bee, ‘Flash Man of St. Giles’s.’ She PICK’D UP the flats as they passed by.

  1790.  BRUCE, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, I. 195. I PICKED UP courage, and … said, without trepidation, ‘What men are these before?’

  1855.  BROWNING, Men and Women, ‘An Epistle.’ Karshish the PICKER-UP of learning’s crumbs.

  1888.  Texas Siftings, 7 July. The act closes by the party PICKING OFF 200 Indians with unerring aim.

  1892.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 23. ‘’Arry at the Sea-side.’ I’m jest tidy myself, flush of tin, with no end of a thunderin’ ‘PICK.’