pluck

present singular third person plucks · participle present plucking · participle past plucked · past plucked · obsolete participle past pluckt · obsolete past pluckt

1. transitiveTo pull something sharply; to pull something out

   She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled.

   2 more examples

   The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined.

   1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC

   "I want to bring that date forward. You only get one shot at this, and if I pluck a date from the air, you will judge me by it. So, until I am certain, I'm sticking with the previous date. [...].

   2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 53

2. transitiveTo take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation.

   First of all, he says a lot of the promotions from the ranks are promotions of the sons of officers who have gone wrong , or got "plucked," or what not, and who are brought up again along another road for commissioned rank.

   1937, Labour Party (Great Britain), Report of the Annual Conference (volumes 37-40, page 281)

   1 more example

   The hardest mission fell to the tanker aircraft, decidedly unglamorous birds, mainly flown by Air Force Reserve crews—most of them plucked from their airline jobs—so rapidly called into service that FAA rules for crew rest time on domestic airlines were quietly violated for the next several weeks.

   1994, Tom Clancy, Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment, New York: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 281

3. transitiveentertainmentTo play (a single string on a musical instrument) by pulling and then releasing it, such as on a guitar.

   Whereas a piano strikes the string, a harpsichord plucks it.

4. transitiveTo remove feathers from (a bird).

   Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: defeather

5. archaictransitiveTo rob, steal from; to cheat or swindle (someone).

   Indeed they seem to consider foreigners as strangers whom they should never see again, and might fairly pluck.

   1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 64

6. transitiveTo play a string instrument pizzicato.

   Plucking a bow instrument may cause a string to break.

7. intransitiveTo pull or twitch sharply.

   to pluck at somebody's sleeve

8. UKtransitiveuniversity slangTo reject (a student) after they fail an examination for a degree.

   —Did you hear the results of the exams? he asked. Griffin was plucked.

   1916, James Joyce, chapter V, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   [A]mong men likely to be plucked are these for the most part. He that hath no friends, he that hath many friends […].

   1835, Scriblerus Redivivus [pseudonym; Edward Caswall], “Topics Concerning Pluck”, in A New Art Teaching How to be Plucked, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: J. Vincent, →OCLC, page 34

   He went to college, and he got— plucked, I think they call it: and then his uncles wanted him to be a barrister, and study the law […].

   1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC

   The lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the university, that Pendennis of Boniface was plucked.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XX, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   He had been a medical student, and got plucked, his foes declared, in his examination.

   1850, [Charles Kingsley], Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC

   I trust that I have never plucked a candidate in the Schools without giving him every opportunity of setting himself right.

   1884 May 8, William Stubbs, “XVII. A Last Statutory Public Lecture”, in Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History and Kindred Subjects, published 1887, page 440

9. Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.

plural plucks

1. countableuncountableAn instance of plucking or pulling sharply.

   Those tiny birds are hardly worth the tedious pluck.

   1 more example

   If you find yourself in this position, there is nothing for it but to haul out using external assistance. This may be from a friend who will give you a pluck off the wall, or you may be able to manage from your own resources.

   2006, Tom Cunliffe, Complete Yachtmaster, page 40

2. countableuncountableThe lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
3. figurativelyinformaluncountableGuts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.

   He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck.

   2 more examples

   Pen had a very good mare, and rode her with uncommon pluck and grace. He took his fences with great coolness, and yet with judgment, and without bravado.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   Madonna was cool in the eighties—her dance pop was minimal and fresh—and we were all fans. She was slightly fleshy in the beginning, and her main talents were pluck, willpower, and moving her body around.

   2015, Kim Gordon, chapter 26, in Carrie Thornton, editor, Girl in a Band, New York: Dey st., →ISBN, page 156

   Synonyms: audacity, balls, bield, boldhead, boldness, bravehood, valor, braveness

4. slanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularCheap wine.

   Synonyms: plonk