From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpick somebody/something ↔ out phrasal verb1 chooseCHOOSE to choose someone or something from a group She picked out a navy blue dress. His story was picked out as the best by the judges.2 recognizeRECOGNIZE to recognize someone or something in a group of people or things She was able to pick out her father at the other side of the room. I picked out Valerie’s voice from among the general conversation.3 see if you can pick something out, you can see it but not very clearly I could just pick out some letters carved into the stone.4 shown clearly if something is picked out, it is in a different colour or material from the background, so that it can be clearly seen His name was picked out in gold lettering.Grammar Pick out is usually passive in this meaning.5 play a tuneAPM to play a tune on a musical instrument slowly or with difficulty He sat at the piano and picked out a simple tune. → pick→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
pick out• I could also pick his feet out and deal with the foot-rot which was starting to set in.• Helen picked it out and dropped it on the floor; beneath was a tangle of string.• Lead me into a room and I could pick them out for you.• When you picked one out it left a can-shaped cav - ity.• I bet you he can pick him out of a crowd of people.• They had grown up and gone to work picking stump out of every other burned off field in this Florida county.• It must be marvelous to just belong to some legislative body and just pick money out of the air.• She unerringly picks us out of the crowd in the cavernous old building. 