"pick up the pieces" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "picks up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "picking up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "picked up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "picked up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "pick up the pieces"
      },
      "expansion": "pick up the pieces (third-person singular simple present picks up the pieces, present participle picking up the pieces, simple past and past participle picked up the pieces)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1957 January 14, “Roberts' Rules of Order”, in Time Magazine",
          "text": "Picking up the pieces after the Suez disaster, the British found themselves getting used to the idea that they are not as big a power as they thought they were.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 February 3, Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian",
          "text": "Cutting administrators is a huge mistake, and will only mean other staff such as nurses have to pick up the pieces.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 43",
          "text": "This is a scorched earth policy, leaving Labour - which has made the right noises, but not loudly enough - with the job of picking up the pieces. Given the incoherence of the plans, the best hope is that the public outcry - even the Daily Telegraph is against them - delays them enough for a new government to rescue most of the ticket offices from closure, but this is no way to run a railway.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-pick_up_the_pieces-en-verb-SrGmXdOT",
      "links": [
        [
          "life",
          "life"
        ],
        [
          "calamity",
          "calamity"
        ],
        [
          "shock",
          "shock"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, intransitive) To restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pick up the pieces.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/41/En-au-pick_up_the_pieces.ogg/En-au-pick_up_the_pieces.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/En-au-pick_up_the_pieces.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pick up the pieces"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "picks up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "picking up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "picked up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "picked up the pieces",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "pick up the pieces"
      },
      "expansion": "pick up the pieces (third-person singular simple present picks up the pieces, present participle picking up the pieces, simple past and past participle picked up the pieces)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1957 January 14, “Roberts' Rules of Order”, in Time Magazine",
          "text": "Picking up the pieces after the Suez disaster, the British found themselves getting used to the idea that they are not as big a power as they thought they were.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 February 3, Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian",
          "text": "Cutting administrators is a huge mistake, and will only mean other staff such as nurses have to pick up the pieces.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 July 26, Christian Wolmar, “Closing ticket offices to lead to 'catch-22' for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 43",
          "text": "This is a scorched earth policy, leaving Labour - which has made the right noises, but not loudly enough - with the job of picking up the pieces. Given the incoherence of the plans, the best hope is that the public outcry - even the Daily Telegraph is against them - delays them enough for a new government to rescue most of the ticket offices from closure, but this is no way to run a railway.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "life",
          "life"
        ],
        [
          "calamity",
          "calamity"
        ],
        [
          "shock",
          "shock"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, intransitive) To restore one's life (or a given situation etc.) to a normal state, after a calamity, shock etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pick up the pieces.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/41/En-au-pick_up_the_pieces.ogg/En-au-pick_up_the_pieces.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/En-au-pick_up_the_pieces.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pick up the pieces"
}