plucking

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of pluck

plural pluckings

1. countablegerunduncountableAn act in which something is plucked.

   Dirty Projectors builds elaborate “glitch operas” with stark pluckings of strings […].

   2007 April 27, The New York Times, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times

2. countableuncountableA fragment of something obtained by plucking.

   Yield per acre and moisture content of grass pluckings taken at 14- or 28-day intervals during the seasons of 1933 and 1934

   1937, Archibald Dixon Shamel, Carl Schurz Scofield, David A. Savage, Wheat Requirements in Europe

3. countableuncountablemediaThe undesirable situation in which printed ink becomes detached from the paper.

   Letterpress and offset gloss varnishes normally have viscosities varying from 50 to 250 poises; they must stain the paper as little as possible, have insufficient tack to cause plucking, […]

   1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415