picker-upper

[ pik-er-uhp-er ]

/ ˈpɪk ərˈʌp ər /

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noun Informal.

something that restores one's depleted energy or depressed spirits; pick-me-up.

QUIZ

ARE YOU A TRUE BLUE CHAMPION OF THESE "BLUE" SYNONYMS?

We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Question 1 of 8

Which of the following words describes “sky blue”?

navy

beryl

azure

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Origin of picker-upper

1935–40; pick up + -er¹, joined pleonastically to both v. and particle

Words nearby picker-upper

pickerel, pickerel frog, pickerelweed, Pickering, pickeringite, picker-upper, picket, picket boat, picket fence, picket line, Pickett

How to use picker-upper in a sentence

Kanye refuses to stomach any rejection, no matter how upper crust.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s Balmain Campaign: High Fashion Meets Low Culture|Amy Zimmerman|December 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
If only Sulzberger had managed to keep a zipped upper lip while leaving the dirty work to anonymous underlings.
The Bloodiest Media Coups of 2014|Lloyd Grove|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
White, upper-middle-class, Ivy-League educated white men, however Great they are, are falling out of power.
A Few Great Men Too Many: Aaron Sorkin Doesn’t Think You Can Handle the Truth|Arthur Chu|December 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Targeting her upper back, Couple sat cross-legged on a table while she whipped her slave.
Dungeons and Genital Clamps: Inside a Legendary BDSM Chateau|Ian Frisch|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST

When I came to New York after college I was taken with the world of Jewish intellectuals and the Upper West Side.
Meghan Daum On Tackling The Unspeakable Parts Of Life|David Yaffe|December 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Perhaps you do not speak my language,” she said in Urdu, the tongue most frequently heard in Upper India.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
On the upper part of the stem the whorls are very close together, but they are more widely separated at the lower portion.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
It is to be remembered, however, that a few of these bacteria may reach the sputum from the upper air-passages.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
The upper part of the stem is usually unbranched, but whorls of branches occur towards the base.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
The eyebrows were low and thick, the upper lip was sensitive, quivering sometimes as she talked, but the lower was firm and full.
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton