same as pick
to eat only small amounts of a meal because you do not feel hungry
He blinked and stretched his eyes whenever the woman stopped watching him to pick at her food with an idle, preoccupied fork.
He picked at a loose thread on his coat.
Most of the time he just picks at his food.
School was a sore spot and one that Joe had no wish to pick at.
Smokes sat down on a fallen spruce trunk and began to pick at the bark with his fingers.
The birds had been sensible enough not to pick at the drugs, however.
picks at
picking at
picked at
There is no origin for this phrasal verb
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