pick vs tongs

pick

noun
  • A tool used for digging; a pickaxe. 

  • Pasture; feed, for animals. 

  • A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum. 

  • A screen. 

  • The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread. 

  • A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair. 

  • A pickoff. 

  • A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones. 

  • That which would be picked or chosen first; the best. 

  • An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate. 

  • A choice; ability to choose. 

  • A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock. 

  • A good defensive play by an infielder. 

  • An interception. 

  • An anchor. 

  • That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture. 

verb
  • To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released. 

  • To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together. 

  • To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails. 

  • To steal; to pilfer. 

  • To screen. 

  • To decide upon, from a set of options; to select. 

  • To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground. 

  • To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck. 

  • To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument. 

  • To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc. 

  • To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble. 

  • To remove something from somewhere with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth. 

  • To seek (a fight or quarrel) where the opportunity arises. 

  • To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points. 

  • To do anything fastidiously or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care. 

  • To intercept a pass from the offense as a defensive player. 

tongs

noun
  • An instrument or tool used for picking things up without touching them with the hands or fingers, consisting of two slats or grips hinged at the end or in the middle, and sometimes including a spring to open the grips. 

  • A large scissors-like two-piece center-hinged forged-iron implement with oval-loop handles and with pointed tips turned inward (in the same plane as and perpendicular to the handles) to facilitate lifting and carrying a block of ice. Often called ice tongs. 

How often have the words pick and tongs occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )