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PICK OUT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives
Example:
She selected a pair of shoes from among the dozen the salesgirl had shown her
Synonyms:
choose; pick out; select; take
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Hypernyms (to "pick out" is one way to...):
decide; determine; make up one's mind (reach, make, or come to a decision about something)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick out"):
vote (express one's preference for a candidate or for a measure or resolution; cast a vote)
nominate; propose (put forward; nominate for appointment to an office or for an honor or position)
elect (select by a vote for an office or membership)
vote in (elect in a voting process)
screen; screen out; sieve; sort (examine in order to test suitability)
adopt; espouse; follow (choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans)
define; determine; fix; limit; set; specify (decide upon or fix definitely)
think of (choose in one's mind)
single out (select from a group)
assign; set apart; specify (select something or someone for a specific purpose)
pick over; sieve out (separate or remove)
cream off; skim off (pick the best)
cull out; winnow (select desirable parts from a group or list)
excerpt; extract; take out (take out of a literary work in order to cite or copy)
elect (choose)
pick (select carefully from a group)
go; plump (give support (to) or make a choice (of) one out of a group or number)
dial (choose by means of a dial)
draw (select or take in from a given group or region)
sieve; sift (distinguish and separate out)
field (select (a team or individual player) for a game)
anoint (choose by or as if by divine intervention)
empanel; impanel; panel (select from a list)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Sentence example:
They pick out him to write the letter
Sense 2
Meaning:
Detect with the senses
Example:
I can't make out the faces in this photograph
Synonyms:
discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
"Pick out" entails doing...:
comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick out"):
resolve (make clearly visible)
discriminate (distinguish)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Context examples:
I desired the queen’s woman to save for me the combings of her majesty’s hair, whereof in time I got a good quantity; and consulting with my friend the cabinet-maker, who had received general orders to do little jobs for me, I directed him to make two chair-frames, no larger than those I had in my box, and to bore little holes with a fine awl, round those parts where I designed the backs and seats; through these holes I wove the strongest hairs I could pick out, just after the manner of cane chairs in England.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
A general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense, in the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp upon his knee, and began to pick out a melody upon the frayed strings.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
