pick at

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To touch, grab, handle, or pull tentatively or gingerly, using a utensil or one's fingers.
   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 45, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     Mr Vholes remained immovable, except that he secretly picked at one of the red pimples on his yellow face with his black glove.

   • 1919, Henry B. Fuller, chapter 4, in Bertram Cope's Year:

     He began to pick at the fussy fringe on the arm of his chair.

   • 2009 February 28, Laura M. Holson, “Putting a Bolder Face on Google”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 August 2015:

     Picking at a salad in a conference room at Google’s headquarters here, Ms. Mayer says she is vexed by how some perceive her.

2. (transitive, idiomatic) To pick on or repeatedly criticize (someone).
   • 1872, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 9, in Work: A Story of Experience:

     "[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."

   • 1904, Margaret Sidney, chapter 15, in Five Little Peppers and their Friends:

     "And I know she's my aunt, but she needn't pick at me all the time," she added defiantly.

   • 2011 October 14, Richard Barber, “Carol McGiffin: I've got a problem in the bedroom... Insomnia!”, in Daily Mail, UK, retrieved 3 August 2015:

     "I get crabby and pick at him about stupid things that wouldn’t normally bother me."

Synonyms

• (touch, grab, handle, or pull tentatively): fiddle with, toy with
• (pick on): badger, bully, find fault with, harass, pester

Further reading

• “pick at”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.