pick-cheesen.
/ˈpɪktʃiːz/, U.S. /ˈpɪkˌtʃiz/ English regional (chiefly East Anglian).
1. The blue tit, Parus caeruleus. Also: the great tit, P. major.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Malvaceae (mallows and allies) > [noun] > fruit of the mallow
cheese1527
pick-cheesea1825
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > family Paridae > [noun] > genus Parus (tit) > parus caeruleus (blue-tit)
pinnockc1275
meese1480
nun1585
tomtit1648
blue titmouse1673
puffer1773
blue cap1797
pinchem1809
blue bonnet1811
pick-cheesea1825
blue tit1831
billy-biter1843
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > family Paridae > [noun] > genus Parus (tit) > parus major (great tit)
great titmouse1544
ox-eye1544
tomtit1648
black cap1802
oven's nesta1825
pick-cheesea1825
Tom-noup1832
saw-sharpener1885
a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) Pick-cheese, the tit-mouse.
1848 Zoologist 6 2186 Parus major and cæruleus are both known by the name of ‘pick-cheese’.
1864 J. C. Atkinson Stanton Grange 229 They was mostlings thae blue-caps or pick-cheeses.
1888 Berrow's Worcester Jrnl. 3 Mar. 4/7 Great tit, saw-sharpener and pick-cheese.
1959 New Scientist 30 Apr. 960 Natural history quiz... 5—What birds are these? (a) Pick cheese [Answer: Blue tit].
1999 R. Malster Mardler's Compan. 55/2 Pickcheese, the blue tit. It is said that cheese was commonly used by boys for baiting the traps they used for catching tits.
2. The seeds or fruit of the common mallow, Malva sylvestris. Cf. cheese n.1 2. Also in extended use.
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the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > fruit or reproductive product > [noun] > fruits of particular plants
acornOE
cacao fruit1697
pawpaw1728
partridgeberry1748
cacao pod1751
sand-bur1834
pick-cheese1874
1874 Hardwicke's Sci.-gossip 9 205/1 ‘Pick-cheese’..is the term applied to the fruit of the common mallow, and as the internal flint casts of Cidarids [sc. fossil sea urchins] greatly resemble these fruits, the name has been transferred to them by the quarrymen.
1895 W. Rye Gloss. Words E. Anglia 162 Pickcheese, in the plural in general use by school-children for the seeds of malva sylvestris.
1960 A. O. D. Claxton Suffolk Dial. (ed. 2) Pick cheeses, the seed of the mallow (Malva Alcea) eaten by children. Also called ‘bread and cheese’.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 124/1 British children still nibble the small, round seeds... They have a bland, slightly nutty taste. In Norfolk they are called ‘pick-cheeses’.
Compounds
pick-cheese tree n. rare the tree mallow, Lavatera arborea.
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1895 P. H. Emerson Birds, Beasts, & Fishes Norfolk Broadland 64 Tree-mallows or ‘pick-cheese trees’, as they are locally called.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1825