Okuzeka
Business English vocabulary · Office Idioms and Phrases

Pick your brain

Meaning in business english, with examples

idiomCommon term

In business english, pick your brain means: To ask someone who knows a lot about a subject for information or advice, usually in an informal way.

In Turkish: fikrini almak, danışmak, bilgisinden yararlanmak

How it is used

A friendly way to ask an expert colleague for help: 'Could I pick your brain about the German market?' The general form is 'pick someone's brain(s)'. It is polite, but busy experts may tire of frequent requests.

Example sentences

  1. Do you have ten minutes? I'd love to pick your brain about pricing.

  2. Can I pick your brain over coffee? You've done more of these audits than anyone.

Common collocations

  • pick your brain about something
  • pick someone's brains
  • can I pick your brain
  • pick your brain over coffee
  • inputIdeas, advice or information that someone contributes to a discussion, a decision or a piece of work.
  • touch baseTo contact someone briefly to check how things are going or to share a quick update, usually by phone, chat or a short meeting.
  • one-on-oneA regular private meeting between two people, usually a manager and a team member, to discuss work, progress, problems and development.
  • feedbackComments about how good or useful someone's work, idea or performance is, given so that it can be improved.

More terms: Office Idioms and Phrases

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