pick-off

[ pik-awf, -of ]

/ ˈpɪkˌɔf, -ˌɒf /

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noun

Baseball. a play in which a base runner, caught off base, is tagged out by an infielder on a quick throw, usually from the pitcher or catcher.

Electronics. a mechanism that senses mechanical motion and produces a corresponding electric signal.

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Origin of pick-off

First recorded in 1935–40; noun use of verb phrase pick off

Words nearby pick-off

pickled, pickleworm, picklock, pick-me-up, pick 'n' mix, pick-off, pick of the litter, pick on, pick one's way, pick out, pick over

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use pick-off in a sentence

Although the blood-spattered offices will be off-limits, staff have vowed to continue producing the magazine.
France Mourns—and Hunts|Nico Hines, Christopher Dickey|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A passing off-duty school safety officer named Fred Lucas said that he had been told the man was a drug dealer.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In such beer polls, I suspect a lot of voters would pick Huckabee.
Why This Liberal Hearts Huckabee|Sally Kohn|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The NOPD fired Knight in 1973 for stealing lumber from a construction site as an off-duty cop.
The Louisiana Racists Who Courted Steve Scalise|Jason Berry|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The off-year special election into which Duke threw himself drew little media notice at first.
The Louisiana Racists Who Courted Steve Scalise|Jason Berry|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A far-off volley rumbled over the plain, and a few birds stirred uneasily among the trees.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
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 Dickens
The majority pick up a job when they can, but are inevitably idle and suffering two-thirds of the time.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
But 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 Fyfe
Isabel longed for the time when she should enter them and pick up the threads dropped from her mother's nerveless fingers.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton

British Dictionary definitions for pick-off

pick off

verb

(tr, adverb) to aim at and shoot one by one

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 pick-off