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

Credits

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.