Library / English Dictionary

PICK AT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Express a negative opinion of

Example:

She disparaged her student's efforts

Synonyms:

belittle; disparage; pick at

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)

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

pan; tear apart; trash (express a totally negative opinion of)

discredit; disgrace (damage the reputation of)

deprecate; depreciate; vilipend (belittle)

belittle; denigrate; derogate; minimize (cause to seem less serious; play down)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Eat like a bird

Example:

The anorexic girl just picks at her food

Synonyms:

peck; peck at; pick at

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

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

eat (take in solid food)

Sentence frames:

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

Sentence example:

They pick at more bread

Sense 3

Meaning:

Pluck or pull at with the fingers

Example:

She picked nervously at the buttons of her blouse

Synonyms:

pick at; pluck at; pull at

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

pull (apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

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