Phrase info Synonyms Antonyms

pick up

Speech parts

1. pick up - Noun

2. pick up - Verb

3. pick up - Phrase

Meaning

take and lift upward

take into custody

gather or collect

perceive with the senses quickly, suddenly, or momentarily

get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally

fill with high spirits; fill with optimism

gain or regain energy

eat by pecking at, like a bird

improve significantly; go from bad to good

lift out or reflect from a background

take up by hand

give a passenger or a hitchhiker a lift

register (perceptual input)

buy casually or spontaneously

get in addition, as an increase

meet someone for sexual purposes

Source: WordNet

Alternative names

pick-up

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Examples

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. Mark Twain

I want every girl in the world to pick up a guitar and start screaming. Courtney Love

Great writers arrive among us like new diseases threatening, powerful, impatient for patients to pick up their virus, irresistible. Craig Raine

You can't pick up two melons with one hand. Persian Proverb

To pick up in a clumsy way is stealing, to steal in a skillful way is to pick up. Armenian Proverb

Children pick up words, as pigeons peas, and utter them again as God shall please. Portuguese Proverb

Words in the phrase

Close letter words and terms