pick up

1. 1.

   take and lift upward

   Synonymslift upgather up

   Broaderraise
2. 2.

   take up by hand

   “He picked up the book and started to read”

   Broadertouch
3. 3.

   give a passenger or a hitchhiker a lift

   “We picked up a hitchhiker on the highway”

   Broadertransport
4. 4.

   gather or collect

   “You can get the results on Monday”

   “She picked up the children at the day care center”

   “They pick up our trash twice a week”

   Synonymscollectgather upcall for

   Broaderget
5. 5.

   get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally

   “I learned that she has two grown-up children”

   “I see that you have been promoted”

   Synonymslearnhearget wordget windfind outget a linediscoversee

   Narrowerget the goodswise uptrip upascertaindiscover
6. 6.

   get in addition, as an increase

   “The candidate picked up thousands of votes after his visit to the nursing home”

   Broaderget
7. 7.

   take into custody

   “the police nabbed the suspected criminals”

   Synonymscollarnailapprehendarrestnabcop

   Broaderseize
8. 8.

   buy casually or spontaneously

   “I picked up some food for a snack”

   Broaderbuy

   commerce

9. 9.

   register (perceptual input)

   “pick up a signal”

   Synonymsreceive

   Broaderperceive

   Narrowerhear
10. 10.

    lift out or reflect from a background

    “The scarf picks up the color of the skirt”

    “His eyes picked up his smile”

    Broaderbring out
11. 11.

    meet someone for sexual purposes

    “he always tries to pick up girls in bars”

    Broadermeet
12. 12.

    fill with high spirits; fill with optimism

    “Music can uplift your spirits”

    Synonymselatelift upupliftintoxicate

    Broaderstimulate

    Narrowerbeatifypuffexhilarate
13. 13.

    improve significantly; go from bad to good

    “Her performance in school picked up”

    Synonymsturn around

    Broaderbetter
14. 14.

    perceive with the senses quickly, suddenly, or momentarily

    “I caught the aroma of coffee”

    “He caught the allusion in her glance”

    “ears open to catch every sound”

    “The dog picked up the scent”

    “Catch a glimpse”

    Synonymscatch

    Broaderperceive
15. 15.

    eat by pecking at, like a bird

    Synonymspeck

    Broadereat
16. 16.

    gain or regain energy

    “I picked up after a nap”

    Synonymsperk upperkpercolategain vigor

    Broaderrecuperate

Questions about pick up

What does pick up mean?

pick up means "take and lift upward". That is the primary sense; the word has 16 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for pick up?

Close synonyms include lift up, gather up, collect, gather up, call for. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is pick up a common word?

pick up is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.