Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIC-A-ROON', n. [Fr. picoreur, from picorer, to plunder; Scot. pikary, rapine; from the root of pick, peck, Sp. picar.]

A plunderer; a pirate. This word is not applied to a highway robber, but to pirates and plunderers of wrecks. In all wars, Corsica and Majorca have been nests of picaroons. – Temple.

PIC'A-YUNE, n.

A small coin.

PIC'CA-DIL, or PIC-CA-DIL'LY, n. [or PICK'AR-DIL; probably from the root of pike, peak.]

A high collar or a kind of ruff. – Wilson.

PIC-CAGE, n. [Norm. pecker, to break open; from the root of pick, peck.]

Money paid at fairs for breaking ground for booths. – Ainsworth.

PICK, n. [Fr. pique; D. pik.]

1. A sharp pointed tool for digging or removing in small quantities. What the miners call chert and whern … is so hard that the picks will not touch it. – Woodward.
2. Choice; right of selection. You may have your pick.
3. Among printers, foul matter which collects on printing types from the balls, bad ink, or from the paper impressed.

PICK, v.i.

1. To eat slowly or by morsels; to nibble. – Dryden.
2. To do any thing nicely or by attending to small things. – Dryden.

PICK, v.t. [Sax. pycan; D. pikken; G. picken; Dan. pikker; Sw. picka; W. pigaw, to pick or peck; Sp. picar; Fr. piquer; Gr. πεκω or πεικω; L. pecto. The verb may be radical, (see Class Bg, No. 61, 62, 65,) or derived from the use of the beak or any pointed instrument. It belongs to a numerous family of words, at least if connected with beak, pike, &c.]

1. To pull off or pluck with the fingers something that grows or adheres to another thing; to separate by the hand, as fruit from trees; as, to pick apples or oranges; to pick strawberries.
2. To pull off or separate with the teeth, beak or claws; as, to pick flesh from a bone; hence,
3. To clean by the teeth, fingers or claws, or by a small instrument, by separating something that adheres; as, to pick a bone, to pick the ears.
4. To take up; to cause or seek industriously; as, to pick a quarrel.
5. To separate or pull asunder; to pull into small parcels by the fingers; to separate locks for loosening and cleaning; as, to pick wool.
6. To pierce; to strike with a pointed instrument; as, to pick an apple with a pin. – Bacon.
7. To strike with the bill or beak; to puncture. In this sense, we generally use peck.
8. To steal by taking out with the fingers or hands; as, to pick the pocket. – South.
9. To open by a pointed instrument; as, to pick a lock.
10. To select; to cull; to separate particular things from others; as, to pick the best men from a company. In this sense, the word is often followed by out. To pick off, to separate by the fingers or by a small pointed instrument. To pick out, to select; to separate individuals from numbers. To pick up, to take up with the fingers or beak; also, to take particular things here and there; to gather; to glean. To pick a hole in one's coat, to find fault.

PICK'A-PACK, adv.

In manner of a pack. [Vulgar.] – L'Estrange.

PICK'AX, n. [pick and ax.]

An ax with a sharp point at one end and a broad blade at the other. – Milton.

PICK'BACK, a.

On the back. – Hudibras.

PICK'ED, or PIK'ED, a.

Pointed; sharp. Let the stake be made picked at the top. – Mortimer.

PICK'ED, pp.

Plucked off by the fingers, teeth or claws; cleaned by picking; opened by an instrument; selected.

PICK'ED-NESS, n.

1. State of being pointed at the end; sharpness.
2. Foppery; spruceness. – Johnson.

PICK-EER', v.t. [Fr. picorer; from pick.]

1. To pillage; to pirate. – Hudibras.
2. To skirmish, as soldiers on the outpost of an army, or in pillaging parties.

PICK'ER, n.

1. One that picks or culls. – Mortimer.
2. A pickax or instrument for picking or separating. – Mortimer.
3. One that excites a quarrel between himself and another.

PICK'ER-EL, n. [from pike.]

A small pike, a fish of the genus Esox.

PICK'ER-EL-WEED, n.

A plant supposed to breed pickerels. – Walton.

PICK'ET, n. [Fr. piquet; Russ. beket.]

1. A stake sharpened or pointed; used in fortification and encampments.
2. A narrow board pointed; used in making fence.
3. A guard posted in front of an army to give notice of the approach of the enemy. – Marshall.
4. A game at cards. [See Piquet.]
5. A punishment which consists in making the offender stand with one foot on a pointed stake.

PICK'ET, v.t.

1. To fortify with pointed stakes.
2. To inclose or fence with narrow pointed boards.
3. To fasten to a picket. – Moore.

PICK'ET-ED, pp.

Fortified or inclosed with pickets.

PICK'ET-GUARD, n.

In an army, a guard of horse and foot always in readiness in case of alarm.

PICK'ET-ING, ppr.

Inclosing or fortifying with pickets.

PICK'ING, n.

The act of plucking; selection; gathering; gleaning.

PICK'ING, ppr.

Pulling off with the fingers or teeth; selecting.

PICK'LE, n. [D. pekel; G. pökel.]

1. Brine; a solution of salt and water or of vinegar, sometimes impregnated with spices, in which flesh, fish or other substance is preserved; as, pickle for beef; pickle for capers or for cucumbers; pickle for herring.
2. A thing preserved in pickle.
3. A state or condition of difficulty or disorder; a word used in ridicule or contempt. You are in a fine pickle. How cam'st thou in this pickle? – Shak.
4. A parcel of land inclosed with a hedge. [Local.]