Definition
A narrow strip or slip of land that tapers to a point, running into a corner. The term describes a parcel whose geometry produces a sharp, wedge-shaped or triangular end — the "pick" referring to the pointed extremity where boundary lines converge. Such parcels commonly arise in land surveys and conveyances where irregular terrain, diagonal survey lines, or the intersection of multiple property boundaries produce a residual sliver that cannot be absorbed into an adjacent rectangular lot.
Pick of land is a descriptive term of art used in property descriptions, boundary disputes, and conveyancing. It does not denote a legal estate or a type of ownership, but rather characterizes the physical shape and configuration of a particular tract for purposes of identification and description.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Pick" in ordinary English denotes the act of selecting, a pointed tool (a pickaxe), or a sharp-tipped implement. No common usage applies to land parcels.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's defines "pick" in its physical sense as a pointed instrument, and as a verb meaning to select or gather. No reference to land configuration appears in general dictionaries of the period.
The legal meaning here is entirely distinct from either common sense of the word. The connection is purely geometric — the land itself is shaped like the pointed tip of a pick or spike. Researchers who encounter "pick of land" in historical deeds or survey records without prior exposure to the term may misread it as a right of selection or an option over land, which it is not.
Common Confusion
Pick of land is occasionally confused with a gore, which is a similarly narrow and irregular strip of land but does not necessarily taper to a sharp point at a corner. A gore more often describes a strip left over between survey lines or created by overlapping or non-contiguous grants. A pick is a subset of these irregular residual tracts, distinguished specifically by its pointed, converging geometry. Some historical sources use the terms interchangeably, but technical surveying and conveyancing usage treats them as distinct configurations.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in historical property records — colonial and early American deeds, surveys, and boundary descriptions — where metes-and-bounds descriptions were the norm and irregular parcels were common. Researchers working in those materials should be alert to several issues.
First, the term is essentially archaic. Modern property descriptions do not use "pick of land"; contemporary surveys render the same configuration through precise coordinate or bearing-and-distance descriptions. Encountering the phrase in a chain of title or historical survey signals that the document predates standardized rectangular land systems.
Second, picks of land frequently become the subject of boundary disputes precisely because their pointed extremities are difficult to locate and monument on the ground. When researching disputed boundary litigation in older records, a pick of land at the corner of a larger parcel is a red flag for ambiguity in the original conveyance.
Third, because the term describes shape rather than a legal category, it will not appear in statutory indexes or case law headnotes under its own heading. Researchers must look for it embedded in deed recitals, survey field notes, and the factual descriptions of boundary cases.
Fourth, the Law Mind corpus will likely surface this term within early conveyancing treatises and historical property law surveys rather than in doctrinal discussions of estates or title. It belongs to the vocabulary of description and demarcation, not to the vocabulary of ownership.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries — Black's (1st Ed.), Black's (2nd Ed.), and Rapalje & Lawrence — are in complete agreement, each defining the term identically as a narrow slip of land running into a corner. The brevity of all three entries reflects the term's limited doctrinal significance; it is a surveying descriptor that found its way into legal dictionaries because it appeared in deed language and required explanation for practitioners unfamiliar with field survey usage.
None of the historical sources elaborate on how a pick is distinguished from a gore or other irregular residual parcels, nor do they address how such parcels are treated in conveyances when the deed fails to describe their dimensions precisely. That silence is itself informative: the term was treated as self-explanatory by courts and practitioners of the period, its meaning obvious from the physical configuration of the land.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry includes the citation "173," likely a page or section reference to a treatise or digest the editors were synthesizing, though the abbreviated citation cannot be identified with certainty from the entry alone. Researchers should treat this as an internal cross-reference within that dictionary's source material rather than as an independently verifiable authority.
Jurisdictional Note
The term has no jurisdiction-specific doctrinal content, but its practical significance is highest in states where early settlement occurred under metes-and-bounds survey systems — principally the original thirteen states and states carved from the original colonial grants east of the Ohio River. In states organized under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), picks of land are uncommon because the rectangular township-and-range grid minimizes irregular residual parcels, though they can still arise at the edges of survey baselines or where private grants predate federal survey.