pick over

Idioms  

1. Sort out, examine item by item, as in Dad hates to pick over the beans one by one. This term is sometimes put as picked over, describing something that has already been selected from (as in They have almost nothing left; the stock of bathing suits has been picked over). [First half of 1800s]

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Example Sentences

He plotted on logarithmic paper every trade involving a draft pick over the previous four years.

From Washington Post • Apr. 25, 2022

We were left with six months of bizarre, surreal and often blurry memories to pick over.

From BBC • Mar. 24, 2022

Even though Allen lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in their head-to-head matchup, Simms still believes Allen is the pick over the former Super Bowl MVP.

From Fox News • Mar. 6, 2022

Drafting Chase with the fifth pick over left tackle Penei Sewell, who went seventh, to Detroit, has proved a franchise-altering decision.

From New York Times • Jan. 2, 2022

The upshot is that by the turn of the twentieth century, paleontologists had literally tons of old bones to pick over.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson