pick up
phrasal verbpick up
- to get better, stronger, etc.; to improve
- Trade usually picks up in the spring.
- The wind is picking up now.
- Sales have picked up 14 per cent this year.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- (informal) to start again; to continue
- Let's pick up where we left off yesterday.
- (especially North American English, informal) to put things away and make things neat, especially for somebody else
- All I seem to do is cook, wash and pick up after the kids.
pick up | pick something up
- to answer a phone
- The phone rang and rang and nobody picked up.
pick somebody up
- to go somewhere in your car and collect somebody who is waiting for you synonym collect
- I'll pick you up at five.
- to allow somebody to get into your vehicle and take them somewhere
- The bus picks up passengers outside the airport.
- to rescue somebody from the sea or from a dangerous place, especially one that is difficult to reach
- A lifeboat picked up survivors.
- The stranded climbers were picked up by a rescue helicopter.
- (informal, often disapproving) to start talking to somebody you do not know because you want to have a sexual relationship with them
- He goes to clubs to pick up girls.
- (informal) (of the police) to arrest somebody
- He was picked up by police and taken to the station for questioning.
- to make somebody feel better
- Try this—it will pick you up.
pick somebody/something up
- to take hold of somebody/something and lift them/it up
- She went over to the crying child and picked her up.
Extra Examples- He picked the pan up carefully by the handle.
- I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it.
- Rather gingerly, George picked up the tiny bundle.
- She gently picked up a plate and examined it.
- She stooped down to pick up a stone.
- She stooped to pick the book up off the floor.
pick something up
- to get information or a skill by chance rather than by making a deliberate effort
- to pick up bad habits
- Here's a tip I picked up from my mother.
- She picked up Spanish when she was living in Mexico.
- Where did you pick up that idea?
- to identify or recognize something
- Scientists can now pick up early signs of the disease.
- to collect something from a place
- I picked up my coat from the cleaners.
- to receive an electronic signal, sound or picture
- We were able to pick up the BBC World Service.
- The survivors were rescued after their sounds were picked up by a television crew's microphone.
- (informal) to buy something, especially cheaply or by chance
- We managed to pick up a few bargains at the auction.
- (informal) to get or obtain something
- I seem to have picked up a terrible cold from somewhere.
- I picked up £30 in tips today.
- to find and follow a route
- to pick up the scent of an animal
- We can pick up the motorway in a few miles.
- to return to an earlier subject or situation in order to continue it synonym take up
- He picks up this theme again in later chapters of the book.
- She left the band last year to pick up her career as a solo performer.
- to notice something that is not very obvious; to see something that you are looking for
- I picked up the faint sound of a car in the distance.
- (especially North American English) to put things away neatly
- Will you pick up all your toys?
- (North American English) to put things away and make a room neat
- to pick up a room