Pick up and Release

Opposite meaning terms

Pick up verb - To take or keep under one's control by authority of law.

Usage example: police picked up the fugitive when she went out to buy food

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Release is an antonym for pick up in topics: improve, lift, obtain, call for socially, arrest for crime.

Release verb - To set free (from a state of being held in check).

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Pick up is an antonym for release.

Nearby Words: released, releasing

Similarly, more people cared about their song "What The Hell Have I" than the movie it was attached to, Last Action Hero for years after its release before the film began to pick up a following.

Source: Breakaway Pop Hit
Then, a decade later and a year after his release, an old friend comes back to pick up the pieces.

Source: Fanfic Recs / Silent Hill
The original American release of Devil May Cry 3 is stupidly hard for all but dedicated fans to pick up, since in the US version "Normal" was actually the Japanese version's "Hard" difficulty.

Source: Nintendo Hard / Hack'n Slash Games

Cite this Source

Release and Pick up. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 14, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/pick_up/release

Pick up & Release. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/pick_up/release>.

Release or Pick up. 2016. Accessed August 14, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/pick_up/release.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "pick up" and "release" have occurred on timeline