pick one's battles
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Choose which problems to tackle to avoid unnecessary conflict
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Chọn vấn đề để giải quyết và tránh xung đột không cần thiết
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: selecting fights
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She decided to pick her battles with her boss
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pick one's battles” mean?
Choose which problems to tackle to avoid unnecessary conflict Literally: selecting fights
Is “pick one's battles” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.