Unpick

v. Also 4–5 -pike, -pyke. [UN-² 9.]

  † 1.  trans. To pick (a lock); to undo (a door) in this way. Also fig. Obs.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 368. Atte laste I stale it, Or pryuiliche his purse shoke, vnpiked his lokkes.

1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 347. Ek fulofte he goth a nyht … And with his craft the dore unpiketh.

c. 1412.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 1103 (MS. Reg. 17, D v 1). He dremethe theves come in, And on his coffres knokke,… And some of hem unpyke withe a sotelle gynne.

1433.  Lydg., St. Edmond, III. 1201. Another [thief] besy … To vnpyke lokys.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Kent, II. (1662), 76. Cunning his hands, who could unpick the Cabinets in the Popes Conclave.

  2.  To undo the sewing of (a garment, etc.); to take out (stitches). Also in fig. context.

[1775.  Ash.]

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, X. x. ¶ 14. I unpicked his pillow, where I found … fifty crowns.

1842.  Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, iii. Wks. (1904), 612. Was it not enough … that he was turned once, like her own cast imperial mantle,… but that he must be unpicked again by Eudocia…?

1856.  Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. vii. Ethel sat down … and began to assist in unpicking the merino.

  absol.  1890.  N. & Q., 5 July, 12/2. While we boys ‘unpicked,’ the bigger girls would sew the patchwork covers.