pick at

On this, his third album, he picks at the scabs of northern working-class life, and rails against a system that leaves families mired in bureaucratic neglect.

People with body dysmorphia also go to a lot of effort to conceal flaws with clothes and make-up, or pick at their skin.

She picks at the American lionization of our creative heroes, especially those with asterisks next to their names because they’ve abused young women.

They picked at this particular South Africa scab with their verbal armoury of salty snipes when a tense chase began.

“He better be working out because I’m just horrified about that fight — just horrified,” Kind mutters while shaking his head and picking at a small plate of bananas and peanut butter.