pick your brain

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom meaning to ask someone questions in order to gain information, knowledge, or advice from them, treating their accumulated expertise or creative thinking as a resource to be drawn upon; the metaphor invokes the brain as a storehouse of valuable ideas that can be selectively extracted, as one might pick fruit from a tree or pick through a collection for the best items; the phrase is used in professional and social contexts when seeking someone's expert opinion, creative ideas, or insider knowledge — may I pick your brain about marketing strategies suggests a desire to access specific, expert-level knowledge rather than general conversation; it carries a sense of flattery, implying the target's brain is particularly worth picking, and is therefore useful in networking and mentoring contexts; some find the anatomical image faintly macabre, likening it to the ancient practice of scavenging, though in everyday usage the idiom is entirely positive and collegial