ppl. a. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not picked out or selected; not freed from what is of inferior quality.
1587. Palfreyman, Baldwin’s Mor. Philos., To Rdr. (1600), B ij b. Some curious or scornfull person finding it vnpicked, emptie, barren of eloquence.
1641. Milton, Prel. Episc., 3. Whatsoever time, or the heedlesse hand of blind chance, hath drawne down … in her huge dragnet, whether Fish, or Seaweed, Shells, or Shrubbs, unpickt, unchosen.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 384. A small sample of each kind of seed, certified … to have been taken indifferently and unpicked out of the gross quantity gathered.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 277. An inferior quality of wine will be afforded by unpicked clusters.
1887. in Moloney, Forestry W. Africa, 135. In a rough state unpicked, but simply roughly … sifted, it sells for £45 to £60 per ton.
2. Not gathered or culled.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 397. Now comes in the sweetest Morsell of the night, and wee must hence, and leaue it vnpickt.
1612. Parkes, Curtain-Drawer, 4. Then Tobacco was an Indian, vnpickt and vnpiped, now made the common Iuy-bush of luxury.
3. Not unfastened or opened; not rifled or robbed. Also in fig. context.
1598. Greene, Jas. IV., I. ii. I cannot abide … a fat capon vncaru’d, a full purse vnpickt.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Laconics, Wks. 1711, IV. 2. How is it possible for a Woman to keep her Cabinet unpick’d, when every Rascal has got a key to ’t?
† 4. Without incision. Obs.–1
1605. J. Mosan, Wirtzung’s Gen. Pract. Phys., 420. Bathing in sweet water is very profitable. So are also boxing cups set vnpickt vpon the sides, whereby to extract all windinesse.
