Collocations for "pick"
Common phrases and expressions where native English speakers use the word "pick" in context.
WordReference English Collocations © 2025
pick
ⓘMost examples are given in US English. We have labeled exceptions as UK.v
- pick and choose
- pick a [color, style, size]
- pick a [username, password]
- pick [sides, teams, groups]
- pick a [date, time] (for)
- pick the [best, wrong, cheapest, nicest]
- pick (one) at random
- [it's, it is] hard to pick just one
- pick whichever (one) you [like, want, prefer]
- pick me as your [date, partner]
- pick from the [options, possibilities]
- pick out a new [dress, color, car]
- pick out a [color]
- pick [strawberries, apples]
- pick your nose
- UK: [they, thieves] are picking pockets
- pick a fight (with)
- [can, know how to] pick a lock
- picked the [harp, guitar] strings
- pick up the [cat, child]
- pick him up [after work, from school]
- pick the [book, movie, relationship] up where you left off
- pick up (right) where you left off
- pick up (some) [milk, eggs] (from the store)
- pick up on [the signs, his signals, her frustration]
- (must have) picked it up from you
- pick on him (at school)
- is picked on (at school)
- [is, gets] picked on by [older, bigger, bullies]
- pick off [a duck, the enemy, a target]
- was picking them off one by one
- pick off [meat, fish] from the bones
- pick the [plan, theory, paper] apart
- the [first, second, last, final] pick (in the draft)
- [let him, should] have [first] pick
- [first] pick on the [players, place, game]
- was a [good, terrible] pick
- take your pick!
- [take, have] your pick of the [options, choices, cards, dishes, colors]
- the pick of the [stable, crop, bunch, candidates]
- chipped away at the [ice, stone] with a pick
- [hacked, chopped, stabbed, killed] with an ice pick
- a guitar pick
- [playing, strumming] the guitar with a pick
- gave his nose a pick
- sport: [came down with, threw] a pick
'pick' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
airport
- almond
- apricot
- arrange
- avocado
- baggage
- bend
- berry
- blackberry
- blueberry
- bone
- brain
- calling
- card
- carton
- cat
- category
- cereal
- cherry
- chick
- cotton
- course
- covering
- crab
- critic
- crop
- crouch
- cumbersome
- daisy
- damned
- deck
- dill
- downward
- draft
- either
- fennel
- fern
- gown
- guide
- ham
- ice
- inconvenience
- kind
- landlord
- leaf
- litter
- lobster
- lumber
- machine
- minute