| pick something off pick (someone/something) off 1. to kill or shoot one person or animal at a time. Snipers picked the soldiers off one by one. The birds in the nest were picked off by hawks. 2. to select and attack or defeat a particular person or group. During the race I just picked off the runners ahead of me one at a time. We try to identify these criminal groups and pick their leaders off before they can cause too much trouble. The Republicans picked off Democrats in Oklahoma, Alabama, and Mississippi in the last election. |