picking

[pik-ing]

noun

1. the act of a person or thing that picks.

2. something that is or may be picked or picked up.

3. the amount picked.

4. pickings,

   1. scraps or gleanings.

      the pickings of a feast.

   2. profits or gains; spoils.

Word History and Origins

Origin of picking¹

before 900; Middle English; Old English picung (once) a mark made by picking; pick ¹, -ing ¹

Example Sentences

A road game against an opponent with plenty of its own urgency should tell the Bruins whether they’re on the road to redemption or merely picking up speed on a route to nowhere.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Up to and including his high school graduation, Cam was brutalized by his classmates, who found him to be easy pickings.

Read more on Salon

See more: Always picking up the tab or lending money you don’t have?

Read more on MarketWatch

In Texas, a white foreman stopped Alvarado and his group from picking in cotton fields just before a plane covered the crop with DDT.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Tuchel made it clear he is picking an England team, not individuals.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• choice 
• collection 
• draft 
• election 
• excerpt 
• option 
• pick