Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Pick Straws (To).

 Pick.Pick a Hole in his Coat (To). 
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E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Pick Straws (To).
 
To show fatigue or weariness, as birds pick up straws to make their nests (or bed).   1
       
“Their eyelids did not once pick straws,
And wink, and sink away;
No, no; they were as brisk as bees,
And loving things did say.”
       
Peter Pindar: Orson and Ellen, canto v.
 


 Pick.Pick a Hole in his Coat (To). 

 
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