unpick

«unpick» in Mova's school dictionary: to take out the stitches of sewing or knitting carefully… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (unpick, unpicks, unpicked, unpicking)

meaning for a pupil

1) To unpick is to take out the stitches of sewing or knitting carefully, one by one. tree →

2) (figurative) To take apart a problem, plan or argument carefully to understand it or undo it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In textiles and sewing lessons: if you make a mistake, unpick the stitches with a seam ripper. In maths and reading lessons: «Let's unpick this question» = look at each part. Phrases: unpick a seam, unpick a problem.

examples

• I sewed it wrong, so I had to unpick the seam. tree →
• Use the seam ripper to unpick the stitches. tree →
• Nan unpicked the old jumper to reuse the wool. tree →
• Let's unpick this word problem step by step. tree →
• The detective unpicked the story bit by bit. tree →
• It took an hour to unpick the knots. tree →
• "All the embroidery is unpicked," said the Princess, sighing. tree →

note

Regular: unpicked. Mainly UK; US often «take out stitches» or «rip out». Figurative use is common in British classrooms.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «unpick» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.