Pick, n. [F. pic a pickax, a pick. See Pick, and cf. Pike.] 1. A sharp-pointed tool for picking; — often used in composition; as, a toothpick; a picklock.
2. (Mining & Mech.) A heavy iron tool, curved and sometimes pointed at both ends, wielded by means of a wooden handle inserted in the middle, — used by quarrymen, roadmakers, etc.; also, a pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
3. A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler. “Take down my buckler... and grind the pick on 't.” Beau. & Fl.
4. Choice; right of selection; as, to have one's pick.
France and Russia have the pick of our stables. Ld. Lytton.
5. That which would be picked or chosen first; the best; as, the pick of the flock.
6. (Print.) A particle of ink or paper imbedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and occasioning a spot on a printed sheet. MacKellar.
7. (Painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
8. (Weaving) The blow which drives the shuttle, — the rate of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch.
Pick dressing(Arch.), in cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions. — Pick hammer, a pick with one end sharp and the other blunt, used by miners.