See pick at on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "picks at",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "picking at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "picked at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "picked at",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "pick at (third-person singular simple present picks at, present participle picking at, simple past and past participle picked at)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "84 16",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "78 22",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"at\"",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "81 19",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "86 14",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 45, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:",
"text": "Mr Vholes remained immovable, except that he secretly picked at one of the red pimples on his yellow face with his black glove.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1919, Henry B. Fuller, chapter 4, in Bertram Cope's Year:",
"text": "He began to pick at the fussy fringe on the arm of his chair.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009 February 28, Laura M. Holson, “Putting a Bolder Face on Google”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-08-03:",
"text": "Picking at a salad in a conference room at Google’s headquarters here, Ms. Mayer says she is vexed by how some perceive her.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To touch, grab, handle, or pull tentatively or gingerly, using a utensil or one's fingers."
],
"id": "en-pick_at-en-verb-vMxq6kSk",
"links": [
[
"touch",
"touch"
],
[
"grab",
"grab"
],
[
"handle",
"handle"
],
[
"pull",
"pull"
],
[
"tentative",
"tentative"
],
[
"gingerly",
"gingerly"
],
[
"utensil",
"utensil"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic) To touch, grab, handle, or pull tentatively or gingerly, using a utensil or one's fingers."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fiddle with"
},
{
"word": "toy with"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1872, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 9, in Work: A Story of Experience:",
"text": "\"[N]oise and disrespect of no kind ain't pleasin' to him. His own folks behave becomin', but strangers go and act as they like. . . . Then we are picked at for their doin's.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1904, Margaret Sidney, chapter 15, in Five Little Peppers and their Friends:",
"text": "\"And I know she's my aunt, but she needn't pick at me all the time,\" she added defiantly.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011 October 14, Richard Barber, “Carol McGiffin: I've got a problem in the bedroom... Insomnia!”, in Daily Mail, UK, retrieved 2015-08-03:",
"text": "\"I get crabby and pick at him about stupid things that wouldn’t normally bother me.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To pick on or repeatedly criticize (someone)."
],
"id": "en-pick_at-en-verb--ZZEOkX4",
"links": [
[
"pick on",
"pick on"
],
[
"criticize",
"criticize"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic) To pick on or repeatedly criticize (someone)."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "badger"
},
{
"word": "bully"
},
{
"word": "find fault with"
},
{
"word": "harass"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-pick at.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/En-au-pick_at.ogg/En-au-pick_at.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/En-au-pick_at.ogg"
}
],
"word": "pick at"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English phrasal verbs",
"English phrasal verbs formed with \"at\"",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "picks at",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "picking at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "picked at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "picked at",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "pick at (third-person singular simple present picks at, present participle picking at, simple past and past participle picked at)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 45, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:",
"text": "Mr Vholes remained immovable, except that he secretly picked at one of the red pimples on his yellow face with his black glove.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1919, Henry B. Fuller, chapter 4, in Bertram Cope's Year:",
"text": "He began to pick at the fussy fringe on the arm of his chair.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009 February 28, Laura M. Holson, “Putting a Bolder Face on Google”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-08-03:",
"text": "Picking at a salad in a conference room at Google’s headquarters here, Ms. Mayer says she is vexed by how some perceive her.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To touch, grab, handle, or pull tentatively or gingerly, using a utensil or one's fingers."
],
"links": [
[
"touch",
"touch"
],
[
"grab",
"grab"
],
[
"handle",
"handle"
],
[
"pull",
"pull"
],
[
"tentative",
"tentative"
],
[
"gingerly",
"gingerly"
],
[
"utensil",
"utensil"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic) To touch, grab, handle, or pull tentatively or gingerly, using a utensil or one's fingers."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fiddle with"
},
{
"word": "toy with"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1872, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 9, in Work: A Story of Experience:",
"text": "\"[N]oise and disrespect of no kind ain't pleasin' to him. His own folks behave becomin', but strangers go and act as they like. . . . Then we are picked at for their doin's.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1904, Margaret Sidney, chapter 15, in Five Little Peppers and their Friends:",
"text": "\"And I know she's my aunt, but she needn't pick at me all the time,\" she added defiantly.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011 October 14, Richard Barber, “Carol McGiffin: I've got a problem in the bedroom... Insomnia!”, in Daily Mail, UK, retrieved 2015-08-03:",
"text": "\"I get crabby and pick at him about stupid things that wouldn’t normally bother me.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To pick on or repeatedly criticize (someone)."
],
"links": [
[
"pick on",
"pick on"
],
[
"criticize",
"criticize"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic) To pick on or repeatedly criticize (someone)."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "badger"
},
{
"word": "bully"
},
{
"word": "find fault with"
},
{
"word": "harass"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-pick at.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/En-au-pick_at.ogg/En-au-pick_at.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/En-au-pick_at.ogg"
}
],
"word": "pick at"
}
Download raw JSONL data for pick at meaning in All languages combined (3.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (f889f65 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.