Pickin

SoT: I told you, I'll be doing some pumpkin pickin ', but if you can answer one question -- ❋ Unknown (2004)

When God does the "pickin" everything else is secondary (exit polls, talk shows, debates, schemes, dirty politics etc.) g ❋ Unknown (2008)

Amang the bits o 'lads wi' pickin 'oot the stones. ❋ Unknown (2001)

Ups an 'off in the middle o' pickin ', cool as you please, to go to Californey. ❋ Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- (1971)

"I ha 'had enow o' folks a comin 'here an' pickin 'my brains and runnin' off wi 'my letters and never givin' me so much as a sixpence." ❋ James Blyth (N/A)

"Plenty of it -- for th 'pickin' up," replied the miner. ❋ Victor [pseud.] Appleton (N/A)

Not out an 'out strakin', but jes 'kind o' pickin 'en a pickin'; insultin 'like. ❋ Frederick Ferdinand Moore (1930)

"Goin ', comin', an 'pickin' would take you the whole mornin ', I reckon." ❋ Sara Ware Bassett (1920)

"Just add another roll o 'towelling to that order," she would command the Algonquin woman who was handing out her month's work, "there's a lot o 'lazy lumps out at our corner that's sittin' pickin 'their fingers for want o' somethin 'to do." ❋ Mary Esther Miller MacGregor (1918)

Then you c'ud put in yore spare moments gentlin 'a hawss fo' her an 'pickin' wild flowers, until Mirandy Bailey persuades her the climate is too chilly. ❋ Unknown (1906)

Ye see, there's vast deeference between towin 'a ship wi' men on her an 'pickin' up a derelict -- a vast deeference -- in pounds sterlin '. ❋ Rudyard Kipling (1900)

Charlie Reade ever wrote, an 'pickin' a toothful here an 'there. ❋ Rudyard Kipling (1900)

He's sort o 'pickin' out a jury in advance, -- makin 'sure that the right men get on it. ❋ George Barr McCutcheon (1897)

There's regular trade, son, to be done in ships, and then there's pickin's an 'pickin's an' pickin's. ❋ Frank Norris (1886)

"Ya'as; finished ter-day; that's all safe; but er rain 'ould interfere mightily wi' pickin 'out cotton up in th' swamp, 'n' it's openin, mighty fast; shouldn't be s'prised ef some er that swamp don't fetch er bale ter th 'acre,' n 'we'll have er right purty lot o' cotton, even atter th 'rent's paid out"; and Father Tyler, with much complacency, lighted his pipe with a coal from the hearth. ❋ William Dean Howells (1878)

Thar waz two infants sittin 'on high chairs havin' some innocent little game o 'pickin' pieces o 'lead outer pill-boxes like, and as soon ez they seed me one of 'em crawled under his desk and the other scooted outer the back door. ❋ Bret Harte (1869)

Activities included the always popular educational exhibit, featuring the chick petting area; a consumer trade show; musical entertainment; demonstrations of creative chicken recipes by local chefs; a Saturday "chickin 'pickin'" competition; many children's activities including the Chicken Capers games; children's activities; a carnival; and a car show and antique tractor show. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Yes, it's Americanized and has all other kinds of influences (today, a lot of it is influenced by rock), but all that "pickin '" and "fiddlin '" hillbilly music started with so many of Scotch-Irish descent living in the Appalachian hills. ❋ Unknown (2009)