Verb

(en verb)

To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.

Don't pick at that scab.

He picked his nose.

To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.

It's time to pick the tomatoes.

To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.

She picked flowers in the meadow.

to pick feathers from a fowl

To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.

to pick rags

To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.

to pick''' the teeth; to '''pick''' a bone; to '''pick''' a goose; to '''pick a pocket

* Shakespeare

Did you pick Master Slender's purse?

* Cowper

He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.

To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.

I'll pick the one with the nicest name.

(cricket) To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.

He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.

(music) To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.

He picked a tune on his banjo.

To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.

To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.

* Dryden

Why stand'st thou picking ? Is thy palate sore?

To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.

To steal; to pilfer.

* Book of Common Prayer

to keep my hands from picking and stealing

(obsolete) To throw; to pitch.

* Shakespeare

as high as I could pick my lance

(dated) To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.

To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.

to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.

Verb

(engag)

To interact socially.

#To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.

#*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

#*:Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage .

#To draw into conversation.

#*(Nathaniel Hawthorne) (1804-1864)

#*:the difficult task of engaging him in conversation

#To attract, to please; (archaic) to fascinate or win over (someone).

#*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

#*:Good nature engages everybody to him.

(lb) To interact antagonistically.

#(lb) To enter into conflict with (an enemy).

#*(Fitz Hugh Ludlow) (1836-1870)

#*:a favourable opportunity of engaging the enemy

#(lb) To enter into battle.

(lb) To interact contractually.

#(lb) To arrange to employ or use (a worker, a space, etc.).

#*{{quote-book, year=1905, author=

, title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged , and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.}}

#(lb) To guarantee or promise (to do something).

#(lb) To bind through legal or moral obligation (to do something, especially to marry) (usually in passive).

#:

# To pledge, pawn (one's property); to put (something) at risk or on the line; to mortgage (houses, land).

#* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vii:

Thou that doest liue in later times, must wage / Thy workes for wealth, and life for gold engage .

(lb) To interact mechanically.

#To mesh or interlock (of machinery, especially a clutch).

#:

# To come into gear with.

The teeth of one cogwheel engage those of another.

(label) To enter into (an activity), to participate (construed with in).

*

*:“[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”