pickup
an improvement, as in health, business conditions, work, production, etc.
Informal. pick-me-up.
Informal. a casual, usually unintroduced acquaintance, often one made in hope of a sexual relationship.
an instance of stopping for or taking aboard passengers or freight, as by a train, ship, taxicab, etc., especially an instance of taking freight or a shipment of goods onto a truck.
the person, freight, or shipment so taken aboard: The cab driver had a pickup at the airport who wanted to be driven to the docks.
Automotive.
capacity for rapid acceleration.
acceleration; increase in speed.
Also called pickup truck . a small truck with a low-sided open body, used for deliveries and light hauling.
Baseball. the act of fielding a ball after it hits the ground.
Also called cartridge. a small device attached to the end of a phonograph tone arm that contains a stylus and the mechanism that translates the movement of the stylus in a record groove into a changing electrical voltage.
Radio.
the act of receiving sound waves in the transmitting set in order to change them into electrical waves.
a receiving or recording device.
the place from which a broadcast is being transmitted.
Television.
the change of light energy into electrical energy in a television camera.
a telecast made directly from the scene of an action.
a hitchhiker.
Metalworking. (in the cold-drawing of metal) the adhesion of particles of the metal to the die or plug.
composed of or employing whatever persons are available on a more or less impromptu basis: a pickup game of baseball; a pickup dance band.
using whatever ingredients are handy or available: a Sunday night pickup supper.
Origin of pickup
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use pickup in a sentence
What image are you hoping people who pick up this book and read it, come away with?
Couple guided Stella as she crawled and dipped her chest to pick up each magnet.
Dungeons and Genital Clamps: Inside a Legendary BDSM Chateau | Ian Frisch | December 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIf your ears are tired of slick auto-tuned vocals, pick up this disk for an aural detox.
Why call a taxi when you can hail a Lyft to pick up visiting family and friends?
Although Korra looks at PTSD and assault with supernatural grandiosity, fans were quick to pick up on it in some forums.
Science-Fiction TV Finds a New Muse: Feminism | David Levesley | November 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
We are going to send our butler to the sale to-morrow, to pick up some of that sixty-four.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2) | Charles DickensThe majority pick up a job when they can, but are inevitably idle and suffering two-thirds of the time.
Glances at Europe | Horace GreeleyBut if they all pick up the broadcast that this is where to get a free ride home, I'll have just another sand trap here.
Fee of the Frontier | Horace Brown FyfeIsabel longed for the time when she should enter them and pick up the threads dropped from her mother's nerveless fingers.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonBlack Hood had spent thirty minutes of search at break-neck speed in an attempt to pick up the trail of the gray sedan again.
British Dictionary definitions for pick-up
Also called: pick-up arm, tone arm the light balanced arm of a record player that carries the wires from the cartridge to the preamplifier
an electromagnetic transducer that converts the vibrations of the steel strings of an electric guitar or other amplified instrument into electric signals
another name for cartridge (def. 3)
Also called: pick-up truck a small truck with an open body and low sides, used for light deliveries
informal, mainly US an ability to accelerate rapidly: this car has good pick-up
informal a casual acquaintance, usually one made with sexual intentions
informal
a stop to collect passengers, goods, etc
the people or things collected
slang a free ride in a motor vehicle
informal an improvement
slang a pick-me-up
US and Canadian organized, arranged, or assembled hastily and without planning: a pick-up band; pick-up games
(tr) to gather up in the hand or hands
(tr) to acquire, obtain, or purchase casually, incidentally, etc
(tr) to catch (a disease): she picked up a bad cold during the weekend
(intr) to improve in health, condition, activity, etc: the market began to pick up
(reflexive) to raise (oneself) after a fall or setback
(tr) to notice or sense: she picked up a change in his attitude
to resume where one left off; return to: we'll pick up after lunch; they picked up the discussion
(tr) to learn gradually or as one goes along
(tr) to take responsibility for paying (a bill): he picked up the bill for dinner
(tr) informal to reprimand: he picked her up on her table manners
(tr) to collect or give a lift to (passengers, hitchhikers, goods, etc)
(tr) informal to become acquainted with, esp with a view to having sexual relations
(tr) informal to arrest
to increase (speed): the cars picked up down the straight
(tr) to receive (electrical signals, a radio signal, sounds, etc), as for transmission or amplification
pick up the pieces to restore a situation to normality after a crisis or collapse
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with pickup
Lift, take up by hand, as in Please pick up that book from the floor. [Early 1300s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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