pick at

verb

1. (intr, preposition) to make criticisms of in a niggling or petty manner

Idioms and Phrases

Pluck or pull at, especially with the fingers, as in She was always picking at her skirt with her nails . [1600s]

Eat sparingly and without appetite, as in He was just picking at his dinner . [Late 1500s]

Nag, badger, as in He's picking at me all day long . [ Colloquial ; second half of 1600s]

Example Sentences

“It was me picking at my insides about the grief and disappointment I was dealing with,” she said.

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That gives her influence over whom Mamdani picks at City Hall to carry out his affordability agenda and is unlikely to assuage concerns that his administration will carry out an agenda unfriendly to business.

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It was set up for them nicely, even more so when they won the toss and got the chance to try to pick at raw South African batting wounds by bowling first.

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Dramatizing the acts of notorious serial killers fires up the journalistic engine devoted to picking at the carcass of accuracy.

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On this, his third album, he picks at the scabs of northern working-class life, and rails against a system that leaves families mired in bureaucratic neglect.

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