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Phrase(s): pick someone or something apart
1. Lit. to pick at and pull someone or something to pieces. • The vultures attacked the hunger-weakened man and tried to pick him apart. • They tried to pick apart the body. • Harry picked his piece of cake apart, looking to get all the nuts out. 2. Fig. to analyze and criticize someone or something negatively. • You didn’t review her performance; you just picked her apart. • The critics picked apart the performers.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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Also, pick holes in or pick to pieces. Find flaws in something by close examination, criticize sharply, as in The lawyer picked apart the testimony, or He found it easy to pick holes in their argument, or The new editor picked her manuscript to pieces. These expressions use pick in the sense of "pierce" or "poke," a usage dating from the 1300s; pick holes in dates from the mid-1600s, pick to pieces from the mid-1800s.
American Heritage Idioms