pick apart

Idioms  

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.

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Example Sentences

"We have a treasure chest in our hands now that we can pick apart and explore," Briner says.

From Science Daily • Apr. 18, 2026

You’ll watch Rex Ryan pick apart your decisions and mutter to yourself: Rex Ryan?

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 14, 2026

The pair who still insisted they were the Turenges spent a day in separate interrogation rooms, where detectives tried to pick apart their story.

From Slate • Jul. 22, 2025

And having been one myself not very long ago, I was already well aware of people’s inclination to relentlessly pick apart the actions of teenage girls.

From Salon • Mar. 11, 2025

Instead he jumped up on Mother’s quilt and prepared to pick apart his breakfast.

From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Related Words

• admonish
• berate
• castigate
• chastise
• chide
• denounce
• discipline
• rebuff
• rebuke
• reprimand
• reproach
• scold