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PICK UP

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gain or regain energyplay

Example:

I picked up after a nap

Synonyms:

gain vigor; percolate; perk; perk up; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

convalesce; recover; recuperate (get over an illness or shock)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

pickup (anything with restorative powers)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Improve significantly; go from bad to goodplay

Example:

Her performance in school picked up

Synonyms:

pick up; turn around

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

ameliorate; better; improve; meliorate (get better)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lift out or reflect from a backgroundplay

Example:

His eyes picked up his smile

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

bring out; set off (direct attention to, as if by means of contrast)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Get to know or become aware of, usually accidentallyplay

Example:

I see that you have been promoted

Synonyms:

discover; find out; get a line; get wind; get word; hear; learn; pick up; see

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Verb group:

find; see; witness (perceive or be contemporaneous with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick up"):

get the goods (discover some bad or hidden information about)

wise up (get wise to)

catch; trip up (detect a blunder or misstep)

ascertain (learn or discover with certainty)

discover; find (make a discovery)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Eat by pecking at, like a birdplay

Synonyms:

peck; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

eat (take in solid food)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Take up by handplay

Example:

He picked up the book and started to read

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

touch (make physical contact with, come in contact with)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 7

Meaning:

Take into custodyplay

Example:

the police nabbed the suspected criminals

Synonyms:

apprehend; arrest; collar; cop; nab; nail; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

clutch; prehend; seize (take hold of; grab)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

pickup (a warrant to take someone into custody)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Fill with high spirits; fill with optimismplay

Example:

Music can uplift your spirits

Synonyms:

elate; intoxicate; lift up; pick up; uplift

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

Cause:

joy; rejoice (feel happiness or joy)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick up"):

beatify (make blessedly happy)

puff (make proud or conceited)

beatify; exalt; exhilarate; inebriate; thrill; tickle pink (fill with sublime emotion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 9

Meaning:

Give a passenger or a hitchhiker a liftplay

Example:

We picked up a hitchhiker on the highway

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

transport (move something or somebody around; usually over long distances)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

pickup (the act of taking aboard passengers or freight)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Take and lift upwardplay

Synonyms:

gather up; lift up; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

bring up; elevate; get up; lift; raise (raise from a lower to a higher position)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 11

Meaning:

Register (perceptual input)play

Example:

pick up a signal

Synonyms:

pick up; receive

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick up"):

hear (receive a communication from someone)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They pick up the information to them


Sense 12

Meaning:

Perceive with the senses quickly, suddenly, or momentarilyplay

Example:

Catch a glimpse

Synonyms:

catch; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 13

Meaning:

Buy casually or spontaneouslyplay

Example:

I picked up some food for a snack

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

buy; purchase (obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction)

Domain category:

commerce; commercialism; mercantilism (transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

The men pick up the chairs


Derivation:

pickup (the act or process of picking up or collecting from various places)

Sense 14

Meaning:

Gather or collectplay

Example:

They pick up our trash twice a week

Synonyms:

call for; collect; gather up; pick up

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

pickup (the act or process of picking up or collecting from various places)

Sense 15

Meaning:

Get in addition, as an increaseplay

Example:

The candidate picked up thousands of votes after his visit to the nursing home

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 16

Meaning:

Meet someone for sexual purposesplay

Example:

he always tries to pick up girls in bars

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):

get together; meet (get together socially or for a specific purpose)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

pickup (a casual acquaintance; often made in hope of sexual relationships)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Sand on Earth also can pick up an electric charge, but the grains are much smaller and dissipate rapidly.

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)

The telescope sees infrared light, which allows it to pick up the infrared glow of asteroids and obtain better estimates of their true sizes.

(Asteroid discovered by NASA to pass Earth safely, NASA)

Usually, dips of 1% and more can be picked up by ground-based searches, but the NGTS telescopes can pick up a dip of just 0.2%.

(‘Forbidden’ planet found wandering ‘Neptunian Desert’, University of Cambridge)

Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) Reach: are you able to bend down and pick up clothing from the floor?

(HAQ-DI - Able to Bend Down and Pick Up Clothing From Floor, NCI Thesaurus)

“What color! What outlines! See to this martyrdom of the holy Stephen, Ford. Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones which lie to the hand of the wicked murtherers?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One participant regained the ability to pick up and drink from a cup.

(Spinal cord stimulation helps paralyzed people move hands, NIH)

Many of these purchases may have been impulse buys, so if the shopper doesn’t pick up a chocolate bar at the till, it may be one less chocolate bar that they consume.

(Removing sweets and crisps from supermarket checkouts linked to dramatic fall in unhealthy snack purchases, University of Cambridge)

Regardless of which country they came from, mothers were likely to pick up and hold or talk to their crying infant.

(Study identifies brain patterns underlying mothers’ responses to infant cries, National Institutes of Health)

These auroral emissions are caused by particles that pick up energy, slamming into atmospheric molecules.

(First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission, NASA)

I was very anxious to know what was going to be done with me, and so was Peggotty; but neither she nor I could pick up any information on the subject.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)




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