0 past simple and past participle of pick --
1 to take some things and leave others: --
The richest universities can pick and choose which students they take.
He's brilliant at picking winners (= choosing what will be successful).
They picked their way (= carefully chose a route) down the broken steps.
The fairest way to decide the winner is to pick a name out of a hat/at random (= without looking or choosing).
The police asked him if he could pick (out) the killer from a series of photos.
[ + obj + to infinitive ] She was picked to play for the team.
2 to remove separate things or small pieces from something, especially with the fingers: --
They were picking strawberries for twelve hours a day.
disapproving He kept picking his nose (= removing mucus from it with his finger).
[ + obj + adj ] The carcass had been picked clean (= all the flesh had been removed) by other animals and birds.
The child continued picking (at) a sore on his leg (= trying to remove parts of it with his fingers).
3 When you pick a string on a guitar or similar instrument, you pull it quickly and release it suddenly with your fingers to produce a note. --
All of these themes are indeed picked up, to a greater or lesser extent, by the authors.
After all transients died out, the steady induced angular velocity of the interior was picked up by the photocell and recorded.
They were picked off in similar fashion - if without resort to force - as the hinterlands of the inner empire, with which they were often coterminous.
Once inflation has picked up, however, firms' inflationary expectations rise.
The volume is well written and cogent, although it does contain a number of annoying typographical errors that the copy editors should have picked up.
The shelving unit enables foodstuffs to be picked out without opening cupboards and reaching over.
Completely unfolded leaves were picked from intermediate positions on the twig; very young or old foliage was avoided.
As the debate continues, many of those suggestions neglected here will be picked up, by me or by others, in different contexts.
