The phrase "pick a quarrel" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is used to describe the act of deliberately starting an argument with someone. For example, you could say, "She always likes to pick a quarrel with her brother whenever he visits."
By L. H. Crimp and Russell Maloney The New Yorker, July 30 , 1938P. 7 From Far-Off Liverpool, a man writes to tell us about a dead-end tot's waterfront hovel whose wall bears the chalked legend, "The Pick A Quarrel Gang".
I tried to pick a quarrel with my father.
You should be on an energy-pumping high - but don't accidentally pick a quarrel.
But if you're going to pick a quarrel with a serious street fighter such as Branson you'd better get your story straight and stick to it.
This united party are all Corbelievers now, and which lingering Labour doubters can pick a quarrel with any of this agenda?
He could also be cantankerous, trying but failing to pick a quarrel with Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review.
The vagueness of the "crime" of "picking quarrels" – authorities didn't say who Pu allegedly picked a quarrel with, or about what — allows police unlimited discretion to detain and arrest offenders for almost any action.
According to their lawyers, the women have been accused of "picking a quarrel and creating a disturbance".
It was an axiom of British politics that one never picked a quarrel with the pope or the National Union of Mineworkers.
The women were accused of "picking a quarrel" by Chinese authorities after they had planned a campaign in opposition to sexual harassment on March 6, International Woman's Day.
Having picked a quarrel with James III of Majorca, he reincorporated the possessions of the Majorcan crown, namely the Balearic Islands and Roussillon, by force into his own dominions (1343 44).
