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Done or made as with a pointed tool; as, a picking sound.

A sharp tool, like an awl, used for picking

A picking of heart; poignant grief proceeding from a sense of guilt or consciousness of causing pain; the sting of conscience. He acknowledged his disloyalty to the king, with expressions of great compunction. Clarendon.

ost delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery. Dryden. He has as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman. T. Gray.

A delirious picking of bedclothes by a sick person, as if to pick off flocks of wool; carphology; -- an alarming symptom in acute diseases. Dunglison.

To search for gold by picking at stone or earth or among roots in isolated spots, picking over abandoned workings, etc.; hence, to steal gold or auriferous matter from another's claim. [Australia]

on. Mercury . . . owns it a marriage by an innuendo. Dryden. Pursue your trade of scandal picking; Your innuendoes, when you tell us, That Stella loves to talk with fellows. Swift.

The process of picking out the oakum from the seams of a vessel which is to be recalked. Meaking iron (Naut.), the tool with which old oakum is picked out of a vessel's seams.

easure; to mutter. Peace, you mumbling fool. Shak. A wrinkled hag, with age grown double, Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself. Otway.

The material obtained by untwisting and picking into loose fiber old hemp ropes; -- used for calking the seams of ships, stopping leaks, etc.

ith a lance, who in a bullfight receives the first attack of the bull, and excites him by picking him without attempting to kill him.

curry favor. [Obs.] Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To pick off. (a) To pluck; to remove by picking. (b) To shoot or bring down, one by one; as, sharpshooters pick off the enemy. -- To pick out. (a) To mark out; to variegate; as, to pick out any dark stuff with lines or spots of bright colors. (b) To select from a numbe…

Act of picking up, as, in various games, the fielding or hitting of a ball just after it strikes the ground.

A machine for picking fibrous materials to pieces so as to loosen and separate the fiber.

An instrument for picking locks. Shak.

One who gets a living by picking up rags and refuse things in the streets.

To make investigation or search, as by picking out the threads of a woven pattern. [Obs.] The humor of raveling into all these mystical or entangled matters. Sir W. Temple.

piness; benefit; avail. The stork's plea, when taken in a net, was the service she did in picking up venomous creatures. L'Estrange.

hesitation; also, occupation with trifles. She lost not one of her forty-five minutes in picking and choosing, - - no shilly-shally in Kate. De Quincey.

To pick out; to undo by picking.