Definition of "pick up"

pick up

verb
third-person singular simple present picks up, present participle picking up, simple past and past participle picked up
1. (transitive) To lift; to grasp and raise.
2. (transitive) To collect an object, especially in passing.
  Quotations
  "I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. […]"
  1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919
3. (transitive) To acquire (something) accidentally; to catch (a disease).
  Quotations
  Cars often pick up bits of road tar and asphalt, dried bugs, tree sap, or other debris that’s hard to remove with regular car wash soap.
  2020 April 16, Thom Dunn, Rik Paul, “How to Wash and Detail a Car the Right Way”, in The New York Times—Wirecutter‎
  We are constantly being exposed to fungi, whether by picking up spores on our skin or eating food on which fungi are hitchhiking. Most of them won’t take up residence in our bodies.
  2022 September 29, Carl Zimmer, “A New Approach to Spotting Tumors: Look for Their Microbes”, in The New York Times‎
4. (transitive or intransitive) To clean up; to return to an organized state.
  Quotations
  The floor was strewn with bright snips of origami paper, a crumpled drawing, and one dirty sock, which Amy now shoved under the bed with her foot. ¶ "You're lucky," said Marla. "My mother makes me pick up my room every single day."
  1967, Beverly Cleary, Mitch and Amy, HarperCollins, published 2009, page 28
5. (transitive) To collect a passenger.
  Quotations
  After picking up a few passengers (most likely heading into Exeter for shopping) and setting a few off (for a day at the beach), we get the 'right away' and continue along the sea wall with its iconic sandstone cliffs on the left.
  2023 August 23, Pip Dunn, “The last bastion of the HST 'Castles'”, in RAIL, number 990, page 49
6. (transitive) To collect and detain (a suspect).
7. (transitive, media) To obtain and publish a story, news item, etc.
  Quotations
  News of this notice from the university was picked up by local media and had the effect of raising the ire of some citizens who saw this as an attack on ‘Chinese heritage’[.]
  2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, page 3
8. (intransitive) To improve, increase, or speed up.
9. (intransitive) To restart or resume.
  Quotations
  The plot picks up where the last film left off. The High Table, the organisation that controls crime around the world, has a multi-million-dollar contract out on Wick, who killed a High Table member.
  2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC‎
  Picking up eight years after The Dark Knight left off, the film finds Gotham enjoying a tenuous peace based on Harvey Dent’s moral ideals rather than the ugly truth of his demise.
  2012 July 18, Scott Tobias, AV Club, The Dark Knight Rises‎
10. (transitive) To learn, to grasp; to begin to understand; to realize.
11. (transitive) To receive (a radio signal or the like).
12. (transitive) To notice, detect or discern; to pick up on
13. (transitive) To point out the behaviour, habits, or actions of (a person) in a critical manner; used with on.
14. (transitive and intransitive with on) To meet and seduce somebody for romantic purposes, especially in a social situation.
  Quotations
  Xavier—first seen as an adult in First Class trying to pick up a woman in a bar—is impotent, at least metaphorically, and will eventually see all of his luxuriant hair fall out.
  2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The Onion AV Club‎
15. (transitive or intransitive) To answer a telephone.
16. (intransitive, of a phone) To receive calls; to function correctly.
17. To pay for.
18. To reduce the despondency of.
  Quotations
  […] they pick me up when I'm feeling blue
  1974, Lynyrd Skynyrd (lyrics and music), “Sweet Home Alabama”
19. To take control (physically) of something.
  Quotations
  Bolton were then just inches from taking the lead, but the dangerous-looking Taylor drilled just wide after picking up a loose ball following Jose Bosingwa's poor attempted clearance.
  2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1-0 Bolton”, in BBC
20. (soccer) To mark, to defend against an opposition player by following them closely.
  Quotations
  And soon after, no-one picked up Shotton who was free to power a 12-yard header over from another Pennant corner, before Pennant sent a free kick straight at Cardiff keeper Tom Heaton.
  2011 January 18, David Dulin, “Cardiff 0-2 Stoke”, in BBC
21. To record; to notch up.
  Quotations
  And the home side survived without any late scares to pick up the first win of their Group F campaign.
  2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport
22. (sports) To behave in a manner that results in a foul.
23. (US, military, transitive) To promote somebody who was previously passed over.
  Quotations
  […] there are now 98 officers of that rank who have been passed over one or more times, most of whom have little prospect of being picked up by future selection boards but will await only the completion of 21 years' service before going on the retired list.
  1937, United States. Congress. Senate, Hearings, volume 2, page 141
  The list is about the same as when each class was commissioned, except for a small percentage who were passed over once or twice and then picked up.
  1938, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Naval Affairs, Hearings on H.R. 9997 to Regulate the Distribution, Promotion, and Retirement of Officers of the Line of the Navy and for Other Purposes, page 3239
noun
plural pick ups
1. Rare form of pickup.

Definition of "pick up"

pick up

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun