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PICK UP
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I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Gain or regain energy
Example:
I picked up after a nap
Synonyms:
gain vigor; percolate; perk; perk up; pick up
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
convalesce; recover; recuperate (get over an illness or shock)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Derivation:
pickup (anything with restorative powers)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Improve significantly; go from bad to good
Example:
Her performance in school picked up
Synonyms:
pick up; turn around
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
ameliorate; better; improve; meliorate (get better)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lift out or reflect from a background
Example:
His eyes picked up his smile
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
bring out; set off (direct attention to, as if by means of contrast)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 4
Meaning:
Get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally
Example:
I see that you have been promoted
Synonyms:
discover; find out; get a line; get wind; get word; hear; learn; pick up; see
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Verb group:
find; see; witness (perceive or be contemporaneous with)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick up"):
get the goods (discover some bad or hidden information about)
wise up (get wise to)
catch; trip up (detect a blunder or misstep)
ascertain (learn or discover with certainty)
discover; find (make a discovery)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 5
Meaning:
Eat by pecking at, like a bird
Synonyms:
peck; pick up
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
eat (take in solid food)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 6
Meaning:
Take up by hand
Example:
He picked up the book and started to read
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
touch (make physical contact with, come in contact with)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 7
Meaning:
Take into custody
Example:
the police nabbed the suspected criminals
Synonyms:
apprehend; arrest; collar; cop; nab; nail; pick up
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
clutch; prehend; seize (take hold of; grab)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
pickup (a warrant to take someone into custody)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Fill with high spirits; fill with optimism
Example:
Music can uplift your spirits
Synonyms:
elate; intoxicate; lift up; pick up; uplift
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)
Cause:
joy; rejoice (feel happiness or joy)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick up"):
beatify (make blessedly happy)
puff (make proud or conceited)
beatify; exalt; exhilarate; inebriate; thrill; tickle pink (fill with sublime emotion)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Sense 9
Meaning:
Give a passenger or a hitchhiker a lift
Example:
We picked up a hitchhiker on the highway
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
transport (move something or somebody around; usually over long distances)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
pickup (the act of taking aboard passengers or freight)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Take and lift upward
Synonyms:
gather up; lift up; pick up
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
bring up; elevate; get up; lift; raise (raise from a lower to a higher position)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Sense 11
Meaning:
Register (perceptual input)
Example:
pick up a signal
Synonyms:
pick up; receive
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick up"):
hear (receive a communication from someone)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sentence example:
They pick up the information to them
Sense 12
Meaning:
Perceive with the senses quickly, suddenly, or momentarily
Example:
Catch a glimpse
Synonyms:
catch; pick up
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 13
Meaning:
Buy casually or spontaneously
Example:
I picked up some food for a snack
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
buy; purchase (obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction)
Domain category:
commerce; commercialism; mercantilism (transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services))
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sentence example:
The men pick up the chairs
Derivation:
pickup (the act or process of picking up or collecting from various places)
Sense 14
Meaning:
Gather or collect
Example:
They pick up our trash twice a week
Synonyms:
call for; collect; gather up; pick up
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
pickup (the act or process of picking up or collecting from various places)
Sense 15
Meaning:
Get in addition, as an increase
Example:
The candidate picked up thousands of votes after his visit to the nursing home
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 16
Meaning:
Meet someone for sexual purposes
Example:
he always tries to pick up girls in bars
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "pick up" is one way to...):
get together; meet (get together socially or for a specific purpose)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
pickup (a casual acquaintance; often made in hope of sexual relationships)
Context examples:
Sand on Earth also can pick up an electric charge, but the grains are much smaller and dissipate rapidly.
('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)
The telescope sees infrared light, which allows it to pick up the infrared glow of asteroids and obtain better estimates of their true sizes.
(Asteroid discovered by NASA to pass Earth safely, NASA)
Usually, dips of 1% and more can be picked up by ground-based searches, but the NGTS telescopes can pick up a dip of just 0.2%.
(‘Forbidden’ planet found wandering ‘Neptunian Desert’, University of Cambridge)
Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) Reach: are you able to bend down and pick up clothing from the floor?
(HAQ-DI - Able to Bend Down and Pick Up Clothing From Floor, NCI Thesaurus)
“What color! What outlines! See to this martyrdom of the holy Stephen, Ford. Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones which lie to the hand of the wicked murtherers?”
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
One participant regained the ability to pick up and drink from a cup.
(Spinal cord stimulation helps paralyzed people move hands, NIH)
Many of these purchases may have been impulse buys, so if the shopper doesn’t pick up a chocolate bar at the till, it may be one less chocolate bar that they consume.
(Removing sweets and crisps from supermarket checkouts linked to dramatic fall in unhealthy snack purchases, University of Cambridge)
Regardless of which country they came from, mothers were likely to pick up and hold or talk to their crying infant.
(Study identifies brain patterns underlying mothers’ responses to infant cries, National Institutes of Health)
These auroral emissions are caused by particles that pick up energy, slamming into atmospheric molecules.
(First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission, NASA)
I was very anxious to know what was going to be done with me, and so was Peggotty; but neither she nor I could pick up any information on the subject.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
