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

See Examples For:

pick over

As demand waned in the following years, companies conducted mass layoffs, leading private-equity firms to swoop in to pick over the remains of distressed assets.

From MarketWatch ● May 23, 2026

You can pick over the entrails of the inflation numbers looking for bad omens, but I’m ever less convinced that anybody, myself included, understands inflation well enough to do this in a useful way.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 27, 2022

It said consultants had been brought in to "pick over all the contracts" on "technicalities".

From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2022

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

From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2022

Made him feel like a little kid, stupid and obvious, the way the urchins looked when they were hanging out behind Chen’s grub shack, hoping he’d toss out bones for them to pick over.

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi