picking

To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.

“Don't pick at that scab.”

To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.

“It's time to pick the tomatoes.”

To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.

“She picked flowers in the meadow.”

To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.

“to pick rags”

To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.

“to pick the teeth; to pick a bone; to pick a goose; to pick a pocket”

To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.

“I'll pick the one with the nicest name.”

To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises.

To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.

“He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.”

To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.

“He picked a tune on his banjo.”

To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.

To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.

To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.

“I gingerly picked my way between the thorny shrubs.”

To steal; to pilfer.

To throw; to pitch.

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.

To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.

“to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.”

To screen.

A gathering to pick fruit.

“We went to a strawberry picking last June.”

(usually pluralized) Items remaining after others have selected the best; scraps, as of food.

(usually pluralized) Income or other gains, especially if obtained in an unscrupulous or objectionable manner.

Something picked or pulled out.

“The schoolboy flicked his nose pickings across the classroom.”

The act of making a choice; selection.

The final finishing of woven fabrics by removing burs, etc.

The removal of defects from electrotype plates.

Dabbing in stoneworking.