PICKUP Definition & Meaning

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pickup

[ pik-uhp ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

an improvement, as in health, business conditions, work, production, etc.
Informal. pick-me-up.
Informal. a casual, usually unintroduced acquaintance, often one made in hope of a sexual relationship.
an instance of stopping for or taking aboard passengers or freight, as by a train, ship, taxicab, etc., especially an instance of taking freight or a shipment of goods onto a truck.
the person, freight, or shipment so taken aboard:
The cab driver had a pickup at the airport who wanted to be driven to the docks.
Automotive.
1. capacity for rapid acceleration.
2. acceleration; increase in speed.
3. Also called pickup truck. a small truck with a low-sided open body, used for deliveries and light hauling.
Baseball. the act of fielding a ball after it hits the ground.
Also called cartridge. a small device attached to the end of a phonograph tone arm that contains a stylus and the mechanism that translates the movement of the stylus in a record groove into a changing electrical voltage.
Radio.
1. the act of receiving sound waves in the transmitting set in order to change them into electrical waves.
2. a receiving or recording device.
3. the place from which a broadcast is being transmitted.
4. interference ( def 4 ).
Television.
1. the change of light energy into electrical energy in a television camera.
2. camera tube.
3. a telecast made directly from the scene of an action.
a hitchhiker.
Metalworking. (in the cold-drawing of metal) the adhesion of particles of the metal to the die or plug.

adjective

composed of or employing whatever persons are available on a more or less impromptu basis:
a pickup game of baseball; a pickup dance band.
using whatever ingredients are handy or available:
a Sunday night pickup supper.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of pickup¹

First recorded in 1855–60; noun use of verb phrase pick up

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Once a scrappy pickup band that played in a high school auditorium with awful acoustics, it is now a world-class ensemble with its own world-class concert hall.

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The dog, Apollo, is a pickup truck of a hound, and Iris barely has any space for him in her cramped New York City apartment.

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Parts criss-cross the borders several times before they are assembled, which means that even a vehicle as iconically American as a Ford pickup truck could see a sticker price increase.

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“Ludwig” is already a hit in the U.K., land of the upbeat whodunit, and its second season pickup can’t have been a surprise.

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In March 2022, he hurtled through the streets of three Silicon Valley cities, chasing a pickup truck carrying the suspected molester, Harry Goularte, and two other people.

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