pick to pieces

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Scarcely any proverb will bear picking to pieces, and analyzing, as a botanist would pick to pieces and analyze a rose or a tulip.

From The Diving Bell Or, Pearls to be Sought for by Woodworth, Francis C. (Francis Channing)

Tempt your parrot with English walnuts, bits of apple and pear, and canary and hemp seed, and also give it a red pepper to pick to pieces.

From Harper's Young People, July 27, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly by Various

Hopper was a born gossip, and if there was any one person he loved to talk of and criticize and "pick to pieces" it was Old Swallowtail.

From Mary Louise in the Country by St. John, James Allen

Boil twenty minutes this time, drain off every bit of water, put on a platter to cool and pick to pieces as fine as possible, removing every bit of skin and bone.

From The International Jewish Cook Book 1600 Recipes According to the Jewish Dietary Laws with the Rules for Kashering; the Favorite Recipes of America, Austria, Germany, Russia, France, Poland, Roumania, Etc., Etc. by Greenbaum, Florence Kreisler

But if you think I'm going down there to stare around127 at the things in the house and pick to pieces the dishes and the food—you're wrong, Beryl.

From Red-Robin by Richards, Harriet Roosevelt