PICK OFF

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pick off mean? 

• PICK OFF (verb)
  The verb PICK OFF has 2 senses:

1. shoot one by one

2. pull or pull out sharply

  Familiarity information: PICK OFF used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PICK OFF (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shoot one by one

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "pick off" is one way to...):

pip; shoot (kill by firing a missile)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pull or pull out sharply

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

pick off; pluck; pull off; tweak

Context example:

pluck the flowers off the bush

Hypernyms (to "pick off" is one way to...):

draw; pull (cause to move by pulling)

Verb group:

draw away; draw off; pull off (remove by drawing or pulling)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pick off"):

tweeze (pluck with tweezers)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

“If I durst,” said the captain, “I'd stop and pick off another man.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)