pick up phrasal verb ( see also ↑ pick )
1 . LIFT SOMETHING/SOMEBODY UP pick something/somebody ↔ up to lift something or someone up:
He picked up the letter and read it.
The phone rang and I picked it up.
Mummy, can you pick me up?
2 . pick yourself up to get up from the ground after you have fallen:
Carol picked herself up and brushed the dirt off her coat.
3 . TIDY SOMETHING pick something ↔ up American English to make a room or building tidy:
Pick up your room before you go to bed.
4 . GET SOMETHING pick something ↔ up informal
a) to get or win something:
He’s already picked up three major prizes this year.
b) to buy something or get it from a shop etc:
I picked up an evening paper on the way home.
For more details, pick up a leaflet in your local post office.
c) to get an illness:
I picked up a virus while I was in America.
5 . COLLECT pick something ↔ up to collect something from a place:
I’ll pick my things up later.
She just dropped by to pick up her mail.
6 . LET SOMEBODY INTO A VEHICLE pick somebody ↔ up to let someone get into your car, boat etc and take them somewhere:
I’ll pick you up at the station.
The survivors were picked up by fishing boats from nearby villages.
7 . LEARN pick something ↔ up to learn something by watching or listening to other people:
I picked up a few words of Greek when I was there last year.
Mary watched the other dancers to see if she could pick up any tips.
8 . NOTICE pick something ↔ up to notice something that is not easy to notice, such as a slight smell or a sign of something:
I picked up a faint smell of coffee.
The dogs picked up the scent and raced off.
We picked up their tracks again on the other side of the river.
9 . RADIO/SIGNALS pick something ↔ up if a machine picks up a sound, movement, or signal, it is able to notice it or receive it:
The sensors pick up faint vibrations in the Earth.
I managed to pick up an American news broadcast.
10 . SEX pick somebody ↔ up to become friendly with someone you have just met because you want to have sex with them:
young women sitting around in bars waiting to be picked up
11 . START AGAIN
a) if you pick up where you stopped or were interrupted, you start again from that point:
We’ll meet again in the morning and we can pick up where we left off.
b) pick something ↔ up if you pick up an idea that has been mentioned, you return to it and develop it further:
I’d like to pick up what you said earlier.
This same theme is picked up in his later works.
12 . IMPROVE
a) if a situation picks up, it improves:
Her social life was picking up at last.
The economy is finally beginning to pick up again.
We’ve been through a bit of a bad patch, but things are picking up again now.
b) pick somebody up if a medicine or drink picks you up, it makes you feel better ⇨ pick-me-up
13 . ROAD pick something ↔ up if you pick up a road, you go onto it and start driving along it:
We take the A14 to Birmingham and then pick up the M5.
14 . TRAIN/BUS pick something ↔ up if you pick up a train, bus etc, you get onto it and travel on it
15 . pick up speed/steam to go faster:
The train was gradually picking up speed.
16 . pick up the bill/tab (for something) informal to pay for something:
Why should the taxpayer pick up the tab for mistakes made by a private company?
17 . WIND if the wind picks up, it increases or grows stronger
18 . COLOUR pick something ↔ up if one thing picks up a colour in something else, it has an amount of the same colour in it so that the two things look nice together:
I like the way the curtains pick up the red in the rug.
19 . CRIMINAL pick somebody ↔ up if the police pick someone up, they take them somewhere to answer questions or to be locked up:
He was picked up by police as he was trying to leave the country.
20 . pick up the pieces (of something) to try to make your life normal again after something very bad has happened to you:
Thousands of victims of the earthquake are now faced with the task of picking up the pieces of their lives.
21 . pick up the threads (of something) if you pick up the threads of something that you were doing, you try to return to it and start doing it again after it stopped or was changed:
Now that the war was over they could pick up the threads of their lives again.
22 . pick your feet up spoken used to tell someone to walk properly or more quickly