378 
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Did you ever find 
That any art could pick the lock, or power 
Could force it open. Denham. 
To pitch. Still ufed in fome parts of England ; as, pick- 
forli for pitch-forli. —Catch him on the hips, and picke him 
on his necke. Stubbes's Anat. of AbuJ'es, 1595. — As 
high as I could pick my lance. Sha/iefpeare’s Coriol. 
To Pick a hole in one's coat. A proverbial exprefiion 
for finding fault with another. 
To PICK, v. n. To eat flowly and by f'rnall morfels f 
Why dand’d thou picking? is thy palate fore, 
That beet and radifhes will make thee roar ? Dryden. 
To do any thing nicely and leifurely : 
He was too warm on picking work to dwell, 
But faggoted his notions as they fell, 
And, if they rhym’d and rattled, all was well. Dryden. 
PICK,/, \_pique, Fr.] A Iharp-pointed iron tool.— 
What the miners call chert and whern, the done-cutters 
nicomia, is fo hard, that the picks will not touch it; it 
will not fplit but irregularly. Woodward on Fo/fils. —A 
tooth-pick.—He eats with picks. Beaum. and FI. Monf. 
Thomas. 
PICK'-AXE, f. An axe not made to cut, but pierce; 
an axe with a ftiarp point.—Their tools are a pick-axe of 
iron, feventeen inches long, fliarpened at the one end to 
peck, and flat-headed at the other to drive iron wedges. 
Curew's Surv. of Cornwall. 
As when bands 
Of pioneers, with fpade and pick-axe arm’d, 
Forerun the royal camp to trench a field. Milton's P. L. 
PICK'-BACK, adj. [corrupted perhaps from pick-a - 
pack.] On the back : 
As our modern wits behold, 
Mounted a pick-back on the old, 
Much farther off. Hudibras. 
PICK'-LOCK, /. An indrument by which locks are 
opened without the key.—Thou raifedd thy voice to de- 
fcribe the powerful betty or the artful pick-lock , or Vul¬ 
can fweating at his forge, and damping the queen’s image 
on viler metals. Arbuthnot. —The perlon who picks locks. 
— ConfelTion is made a minifter of date, a pick-lock of fe- 
crets, a fpy upon families, a fearcher of inclinations. Bp. 
Taylor's Diff. from Popery. 
PICK'-a-PACK, aclv. [from pack, by a reduplication 
very common in our language.] In manner of a pack.— 
In a hurry die whips up her darling under her arms, 
and carries the other a pick-a-pack upon her flioulders. 
L'Ef range. 
PICK'-POCKET, or Pick'-purse, /. A thief who 
deals, by putting his hand privately into the pocket or 
purfe.—I think he is not a pick-purfe nor a horfe-dealer. 
Shakefpeare. — Pick-pockets and highwaymen obferve 
drift judice among tliemfelves. Bentley's Serm. 
His fellow pick-purfe, watching for a job, 
Fancies his fingers in the cully’s fob. Swift. 
If court or country’s made a job, 
Go, drench a pick-pocket, and join the mob. Pope. 
PICK'-POCKET, adj. Privately dealing.—I do not 
mean the auricular pick-pocket confeflion of the papids, 
but public confedion. South's Serm. 
PICK'-THANK,/. An odiciousfellow, who does what 
he is not defired ; a whifpering parafite.—Every where 
had they their fpyes, their Judaffes, their falfe accufers, 
their fommoners, their balyves, and their pike-thankes. 
Bale on the Bevelat. 1550. —The bufinefs of a. pick-thank 
is the bafed of offices. L'EJlranye. 
With pleading tales his lord’s vain ears he fed, 
A flatterer, a pick-thank, and a Iyer. Fairfax. 
PICIC'-TOOTH, / An indrument by which the teeth 
are cleaned. Ridiculed by Gafcoigne, in 1572, as a fo- 
. P I c 
reign introduftion. —If a gentleman leaves a pick-tooth- 
cafe on the table after dinner, look upon it as part of 
your vails. Swift. 
PICK'-TOOTH, /. in botany. See Daucus. 
PICK'AWAY, a county in the date of Ohio, con¬ 
taining, in 1810, 10 towns and 7124. inhabitants.—Alfo, 
a town in the faid county, of the fame name, containing 
1598 inhabitants. 
PICK'ED, adj. [from pike.] Sharp.—Let thedakebe 
made picked at the top, that the jay may not fettle on it. 
Mortimer's Hujb. —Smart; fpruce; [perhaps from piqui, 
Fr - 3 —He is too picked, too fpruce, too affefted. S/iake- 
fpeare's Love's Lab. loft. 
’Tis fuch a picked fellow, not a haire 
About his whole bulk, but it dands in print. Chapman. 
PICK'EDNESS, /. State of being pointed or fharp. 
Foppery ; fprucenefs.—Too much pickednefs is not manly. 
B. Jon fan's Difcoveries. 
To PICKEE'R, v.n. [piccare, Ital.] To pirate; to 
pillage; to rob. Ainfworth. —To make a flying fkirmidi: 
No fooner could a hint appear. 
But up he darted to pickeer; 
And made the douted yield to mercy, 
When he engaged in controverfy. Hudibras. 
PICKEE'RING, or Picaroo'ning, /. A little flying 
war or lkirmifh, which thefoldiers make when detached 
from their bodies to pillage, or before a main battle begins. 
PICK'ER, f. One who picks or culls.—The pickers 
pick the hops into the hair-cloth. Mortimer. —One who 
haflily takes up a matter ; a picker of quarrels.—A pick¬ 
axe; an indrument to pick with.— With an iron picker 
clear the earth out of the hills. Mortimer. 
PICK'EREL, f- [from pike.] A fmall pike.—Bet is, 
quoth he, a pike rather than a pickerel. Chaucer's Merck. 
Tale.— Trail no fpears but fpare-ribs of pork, tofs no 
pikes but boiled pickrels. Brewer's Lingua. 
PICK'EREL-WEED,/. Awater-plant from which pikes 
are fabled to be generated.—The luce, or pike, is the ty¬ 
rant of the frefh waters; they are bred, fome by genera¬ 
tion, and fome not; as of a weed called pickerel-weed, 
unlefs Gofner be midaken. Walton. 
PICK'ERING, a county of United America, in the 
Miffifiippi territory. 
PICK'ERING, a townfhip in the Eafl Riding of the 
county of York, in Upper Canada, between Whitby and 
Scarborough, and parting Lake Ontario. 
PICK'ERING, a market-town in the North Riding of 
Yorkfhire, pleafantly feated on an eminence, furround- 
ed by the lofty mountains of Blakemore, at the didance 
of 26 miles from York, and 225 from London. It is a 
town of very remote antiquity. It feems formerly to 
have enjoyed the privileges of a borough, and undoubt¬ 
edly fent members more than once to parliament. How 
it lod this right is unknown ; but it was mod probably 
through negleft. The market-day is on Monday; and 
there are belides four annual fairs (Feb. May, Sept, and 
Nov.) for horned cattle, horfes, and flieep. Pickering is 
an honour belonging to the duchy of Lancader, and pof- 
feffes a jurifdiftion over feveral of the neighbouring vil¬ 
lages, lying within its boundaries. Here, therefore, are 
held the courts of the honour of Pickering, for all ac¬ 
tions under 40s. arifing therein; and alfo the petty fef- 
fions for the wed divifion of the wapentake. The lord 
of the manor calls his court four times in the year ; viz. 
the fecond and third Mondays after Eader, and the fil'd 
and fecond Mondays after Michaelmas. The neared and 
bed road from the north to Scarborough is through this 
town, from which it is didant 18 miles ead, Malton 9 
miles fouth, and Kirkby Moorfide 8 miles wed. 
In the year 1801, the number of inhabitants was 1994, 
of whom 1386 were employed in trade and manufaftures; 
but, according to the parliamentary returns of 1811, the 
lioufes in this town are edimated at 540 in number, and 
the 
