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pluck

verb
/plʌk/

Etymology

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English plyċċan ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"), from Proto-West Germanic *plukkōn, from Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną (“to pluck”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Perhaps related to Old English pullian (“to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian plukje (“to pluck”), West Frisian plôkje (“to pick, pluck”), Dutch plukken (“to pluck”), Limburgish plógte (“to pluck”), Low German plukken (“to pluck”), German pflücken (“to pluck, pick”), Danish and Norwegian plukke (“to pick”), Swedish plocka (“to pick, pluck, cull”), Icelandic plokka, plukka (“to pluck, pull”). More at pull. An alternative etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilūc(i)cāre, a derivative of Latin pilāre (“deprive of hair, make bald, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence. The noun sense of "heart, liver, and lights of an animal" comes from it being plucked out of the carcass after the animal is killed; the sense of "fortitude, boldness" derives from this meaning, originally being a boxing slang denoting a prize-ring, with semantic development from "heart", the symbol of courage, to "fortitude, boldness".

  1. inherited from *plukkōną✻
  2. inherited from *plukkōn✻
  3. inherited from pluccian
  4. inherited from plucken

Definitions

  1. To pull something sharply

    To pull something sharply; to pull something out

    • She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled.
    • The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined.
    • "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. [...].

  2. To 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.

  3. To play (a single string on a musical instrument) by pulling and then releasing it, such…

    To 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. ›+ 10 more definitions

    1. To remove feathers from (a bird).

    2. To rob, steal from

      To 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.

    3. To play a string instrument pizzicato.

      • Plucking a bow instrument may cause a string to break.

    4. To pull or twitch sharply.

      • to pluck at somebody's sleeve

    5. To reject (a student) after they fail an examination for a degree.

      • 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 […]
      • Let us hide our heads, and shut up the page. The lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the university, that Pendennis of Boniface was plucked.

    6. Of a glacier

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

    7. An instance of plucking or pulling sharply.

      • Those tiny birds are hardly worth the tedious pluck.
      • 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.

    8. The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.

    9. Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.

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

    10. Cheap wine.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at pluck. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01pluck02instrument03achieving04achieve05succeed06supplant07uproot08extirpate09pull

A definitional loop anchored at pluck. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at pluck

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA