pick apart

1. Also, pick holes in or pick to pieces. Find flaws in something by close examination, criticize sharply, as in The lawyer picked apart the testimony, or He found it easy to pick holes in their argument, or The new editor picked her manuscript to pieces. These expressions use pick in the sense of “pierce” or “poke,” a usage dating from the 1300s; pick holes in dates from the mid-1600s, pick to pieces from the mid-1800s.

Related Words

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