to pick up; to gather; to find (and pick up; something someone has dropped); to select; to choose; to get (unexpectedly); to hit upon (luck, an opportunity, etc.)
to pick up; to pick out (e.g. key points in an article); to single out; to point out
to gather; to (pick up and) collect; to glean (information)
picking up; gathering; type-picking; walking
picking up trash; litter picking; litter cleanup
to narrowly escape death; to have a narrow escape from death
found article; thing picked up (e.g. in the street); (lucky) find; piece of good luck; windfall
reading only the important parts; reading here and there; skimming through; reading word by word; reading only the parts one can understand
retrieving balls (during a practice session; in tennis, baseball, etc.); acting as ball boy; ball boy; player (in a tennis club, etc.) assigned the role of ball boy
to collect the ashes of the deceased; to look after someone's affairs after he dies
to take a risk for someone; to endanger oneself for someone; (lit.) to gather chestnuts from the fire
retrieving balls (during a practice session; in tennis, baseball, etc.); acting as ball boy; ball boy; player (in a tennis club, etc.) assigned the role of ball boy
when one door is shut, another is open; the world is as kind as it is cruel; (lit.) there are gods that will abandon you and there are gods that will pick you up
gathering up the ashes of the deceased
finder (of lost property)
gleaning (i.e. picking up crop left after harvesting)
(a) wander; amble; walking on the good part of a street (to avoid puddles, etc.)
picking up stitches (knitting)
walking on the good part of a street (to avoid puddles, etc.)
passing food from one person's chopsticks to another's (a breach of etiquette)
gathering cigarette butts; person gathering cigarette butts
image found on the Internet (as opposed to created by oneself)
to squander what has been saved up laboriously; to blow one's hard-earned fortune; (lit.) to spill through a winnowing basket what one has collected with their fingernails