pluck

[ pluhk ]

verb (used with object)

1. to pull off or out from the place of growth, as fruit, flowers, feathers, etc.:

   to pluck feathers from a chicken.

2. to give a pull at; grasp:

   to pluck someone's sleeve.

   Synonyms: tug

3. to pull with sudden force or with a jerk.

   Synonyms: rip, tear, yank

4. to pull or move by force (often followed by away, off, or out ).
5. to remove the feathers, hair, etc., from by pulling:

   to pluck a chicken.

6. Slang. to rob, plunder, or fleece.
7. to sound (the strings of a musical instrument) by pulling at them with the fingers or a plectrum.

verb (used without object)

1. to pull or tug sharply (often followed by at ).
2. to snatch (often followed by at ).

noun

1. act of plucking; a tug.
2. the heart, liver, and lungs, especially of an animal used for food.
3. courage or resolution in the face of difficulties.

   Synonyms: boldness, nerve, mettle, determination, bravery

verb phrase

1. 1. to eradicate; uproot.
   2. to summon up one's courage; rouse one's spirits:

      He always plucked up at the approach of danger. She was a stranger in the town, but, plucking up her courage, she soon made friends.

pluck

/ plʌk /

verb

1. tr to pull off (feathers, fruit, etc) from (a fowl, tree, etc)
2. whenintr, foll by at to pull or tug
3. archaic.
   tr; foll by off, away, etc to pull (something) forcibly or violently (from something or someone)
4. tr to sound (the strings) of (a musical instrument) with the fingers, a plectrum, etc
5. tr another word for strip 1
6. slang.
   tr to fleece or swindle

noun

1. courage, usually in the face of difficulties or hardship
2. a sudden pull or tug
3. the heart, liver, and lungs, esp of an animal used for food

Derived Forms

• ˈplucker, noun

Other Words From

• plucker noun
• half-plucked adjective
• un·plucked adjective
• well-plucked adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pluck¹

before 1000; Middle English plukken (v.), Old English pluccian, cognate with Middle Low German plucken; akin to Dutch plukken, German pflücken

Word History and Origins

Origin of pluck¹

Old English pluccian, plyccan; related to German pflücken

Example Sentences

Still, the earnestness — Ronan and Harris Dickinson, seen briefly as a kind neighbor-turned-soldier, are pros at that — decidedly outweighs the unavoidable sense that we’re on a briskly engineered studio tour of character-building pluck.

From Los Angeles Times

To the massive relief of the state’s agribusiness, this outbreak and most of those to come — unlike the desolation of Florida’s commercial agriculture — were aggressively confined pretty much to small-scale commercial growers and to gentlemen cultivators with backyard trees, the kind of pocket orchards that had enticed Midwestern immigrants here with the promise that you could just step off your back porch to pluck your morning orange.

From Los Angeles Times

“Sometimes I want to say, ‘Oh, yes — let me just go out back and pluck one off the tree where they grow.’”

From Los Angeles Times

Pluck them from the narrative and it’d be difficult to pinpoint why they were there at all.

From Los Angeles Times

“He made a funny motion as though — well okay why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out,” Corcoran’s notes read, according to the indictment.

From Salon

Related Words

• clutch
• cull
• harvest
• snatch
• strum
• yank