pickup

[pik-uhp] /ˈpɪkˌʌp/
noun
1.
an improvement, as in health, business conditions, work, production, etc.
2.
Informal. pick-me-up.
3.
Informal. a casual, usually unintroduced acquaintance, often one made in hope of a sexual relationship.
4.
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.
5.
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.
6.
Automotive.
  1. capacity for rapid acceleration.
  2. acceleration; increase in speed.
  3. Also called pickup truck. a small truck with a low-sided open body, used for deliveries and light hauling.
7.
Baseball. the act of fielding a ball after it hits the ground.
8.
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.
9.
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).
10.
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.
11.
a hitchhiker.
12.
Metalworking. (in the cold-drawing of metal) the adhesion of particles of the metal to the die or plug.
adjective
13.
composed of or employing whatever persons are available on a more or less impromptu basis:
a pickup game of baseball; a pickup dance band.
14.
using whatever ingredients are handy or available:
a Sunday night pickup supper.
Origin
1855-60; noun use of verb phrase pick up
Examples from the web for pickup
  • The mere words give parents the jitters, which is partly why the college pickup culture has received so much attention.
  • It is much the same as the kids getting together to play a pickup game of basketball.
  • Colleges face a challenge to masculinity that bulging muscles, rumbling voices, and jacked-up pickup trucks won't remedy.
  • We disembark, climb into a pickup truck and bump through scrubby pastureland.
  • Then a pickup truck blew through a stop sign, totaling our vehicle.
  • Some will even send a truck for pickup for an additional fee.
  • Such a pickup is technically called horizontal or lateral gene transfer.
  • Another setting, sport mode, is better-the pickup is noticeably better.
  • We got out of the pickup to watch as the steers, increasingly peeved as they realized their fate, were locked into pens.
  • They were not the sort who played pickup games at the playground every evening.
Word Origin and History for pickup
n.

also pick-up, "that which is picked up," 1848; see pick up (v.). As "act of picking up" from 1882. Meaning "capacity for acceleration" is from 1909; that of "recovery" is from 1916. In reference to a game between informal teams chosen on the spot, from 1905 (as an adjective in this sense by 1936).

Meaning "small truck used for light loads," 1937, is shortened from pickup truck (pickup body is attested from 1928). The notion probably being of a vehicle for use to "pick up" (feed, lumber, etc.) and deliver it where it was needed.

Slang definitions & phrases for pickup

pickup

adjective
  1. Impromptu; unceremonious: We'll have a pickup lunch in the kitchen (1859+)
  2. For one occasion; temporary; ad hoc: a pickup band/ a pickup corps of waiters (1936+)
noun
  1. A person accosted and made a companion, esp in a bar, on the street, etc, for sexual purposes: His next girlfriend was a pickup he made at Rod's (1926+)
  2. An arrest (1908+)
  3. (also pickup truck) A small truck having a cab and cargo space with low sidewalls (1932+)
  4. The ability of a car to accelerate rapidly, esp from a halt (1909+)
  5. The act of getting or acquiring something: He made the pickup at the post office (1938+)