PICKING PEOPLE UP

There are many ways of picking someone up. If you have a young child, you might physically pick them up to lift them in your arms or, as a skater or dancer, you might pick up (lift) your partner.

 However, the phrase is used idiomatically to describe collecting someone from somewhere, often in a car. This is normally arranged in advance.

 e.g. “There is a new luxury addition at Edinburgh airport. Now you can order a new chauffeur service to pick you up from the tarmac and take you to your destination.”

 “On a Tuesday the in-laws picked him up from nursery and when he got home he was clutching a book.”

 The phrase is sometimes used in relation to initiating contact with a stranger, sometimes in a sinister sense without their consent.

 e.g. “The conductor on the Brighton Beach train tried to pick me up and wanted me to go out with him, but I didn’t give him a chance to.”

 This term is also used to describe an arrest by the police.

 e.g. “Norman, of no fixed abode, was convicted of two counts of possessing a knife in his absence on July 19 but appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court today after being picked up by the police.”

 Photo credit: Greg Williams