pick out

English

Verb

pick out (third-person singular simple present picks out, present participle picking out, simple past and past participle picked out)

1. to remove by picking

   1859, Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities

   Madame Defarge herself picked out the pattern on her sleeve with her toothpick, and saw and heard something inaudible and invisible a long way off.

2. to select

   2007, Letticia, Body Worship, page 192

   Very often husbands would patronise my boutique and pick out something for the little lady and, in passing, pick out something for themselves.

3. (idiomatic) to distinguish

   Apr 30, 1988, Toronto Star - Bonaventure Island a birdwatcher's delight 50,000 gannets jostle and spar for a piece of the island

   The young birds cry out for food, and the parents returning from the sea manage to pick out their own amid a mass of look-alikes.

4. (idiomatic) to detect using one's senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste)
   • 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

   And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock.

5. (idiomatic, soccer) to send a long pass or cross to.

   26 December 2006, 4TheGame - Bolton Wanderers vs Newcastle United

   Ameobi skipped away down the left in the 39th minute and tried to pick out Shearer with a cross but his delivery was cut out by goalkeeper Jussi J...