pick a hole in someone's coat

pick a hole in someone's coat (third-person singular simple present picks a hole in someone's coat, present participle picking a hole in someone's coat, simple past and past participle picked a hole in someone's coat)

1. (archaic) To find fault with someone.
   • 1677, Aphra Behn, The Rover, or, the Banish't Cavaliers, page 8:

     'Sheartikins, they know I follow it to do it no good, unless they pick a hole in my Coat for lending you Money now and then, which is a greater Crime to my Conscience, Gentlemen, than to the Common-Wealth.