PICK OUT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pick out mean? 

• PICK OUT (verb)
  The verb PICK OUT has 2 senses:

1. pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives

2. detect with the senses

  Familiarity information: PICK OUT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PICK OUT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

choose; pick out; select; take

Context example:

She selected a pair of shoes from among the dozen the salesgirl had shown her

Hypernyms (to "pick out" is one way to...):

decide; determine; make up one's mind (reach, make, or come to a decision about something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick out"):

anoint (choose by or as if by divine intervention)

vote (express one's preference for a candidate or for a measure or resolution; cast a vote)

nominate; propose (put forward; nominate for appointment to an office or for an honor or position)

elect (select by a vote for an office or membership)

vote in (elect in a voting process)

screen; screen out; sieve; sort (examine in order to test suitability)

adopt; espouse; follow (choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans)

define; determine; fix; limit; set; specify (decide upon or fix definitely)

think of (choose in one's mind)

single out (select from a group)

assign; set apart; specify (select something or someone for a specific purpose)

pick over; sieve out (separate or remove)

cream off; skim off (pick the best)

cull out; winnow (select desirable parts from a group or list)

excerpt; extract; take out (take out of a literary work in order to cite or copy)

elect (choose)

pick (select carefully from a group)

go; plump (give support (to) or make a choice (of) one out of a group or number)

dial (choose by means of a dial)

draw (select or take in from a given group or region)

sieve; sift (distinguish and separate out)

field (select (a team or individual player) for a game)

empanel; impanel; panel (select from a list)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They pick out him to write the letter

Sense 2

Meaning:

Detect with the senses

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

discern; distinguish; make out; pick out; recognise; recognize; spot; tell apart

Context example:

I can't make out the faces in this photograph

"Pick out" entails doing...:

comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick out"):

resolve (make clearly visible)

discriminate (distinguish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

With the aid of computers, scientists were able to pick out more than 170,000 active supermassive black holes from the WISE data.

(NASA's WISE findings poke hole in black hole 'Doughnut' theory, NASA)

Last night was also wet, you will remember, and it was not difficult—having obtained a sample print—to pick out his track among others and to follow his movements.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

According to a new study, it may be possible to teach machines how to pick out features in neurons and other cells that have not been stained or undergone other damaging treatments.

(Scientists teach computers how to analyze brain cells, National Institutes of Health)

For some time, amidst the immense hillside of faces which banked themselves up on the slope behind us, I was unable to pick out the exact point at which his gaze was directed.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At length he stammered out:—"You see, I do not know how to pick out any particular part of the diary."

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Pick out some great, wanton flame of a woman, who laughs at life and jeers at death and loves one while she may.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Their knights and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and I could pick out a score of those who ride behind Du Guesclin who would hold the lists with sharpened lances against the best men in the army of England.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The machine-learning technique, developed by scientists at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Centers for Environmental Information, searches massive amounts of satellite data to pick out features significant for space weather.

(Detecting solar flares in real time, National Science Foundation)

When I had got out of danger, I stopped awhile to pick out the arrows that stuck in my hands and face; and rubbed on some of the same ointment that was given me at my first arrival, as I have formerly mentioned.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We look into the glittering windows of the jewellers' shops; and I show Sophy which of the diamond-eyed serpents, coiled up on white satin rising grounds, I would give her if I could afford it; and Sophy shows me which of the gold watches that are capped and jewelled and engine-turned, and possessed of the horizontal lever-escape-movement, and all sorts of things, she would buy for me if she could afford it; and we pick out the spoons and forks, fish-slices, butter-knives, and sugar-tongs, we should both prefer if we could both afford it; and really we go away as if we had got them!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)