pickup (pick|up)

noun

• 1 (also pickup truck) a small van or truck with low sides.

• 2an act of collecting a person or goods, especially in a vehicle: travel by coach from your local pickup point to your hotel

• 3 informal a casual encounter with a stranger with a view to having sexual intercourse: most people met through casual pickups
• a person encountered with a view to having sexual intercourse: her flatmates are used to Susan’s rugged pickups

• 4an improvement, especially in an economy: a pickup in demand

• 5a device that produces an electrical signal in response to some other kind of signal or change, in particular:
• the cartridge of a record player, carrying the stylus.
• a device on an electric guitar which converts string vibrations into electrical signals for amplification.

• 6 [mass noun] the reception of signals, especially interference or noise, by electrical apparatus: this microphone helps reduce the pickup of background noise

• 7 Music a series of introductory notes leading into the opening part of a tune.

• 8 Fishing a semicircular loop of metal for guiding the line back on to the spool as it is reeled in.

adjective

• informal and spontaneous: a pickup basketball game