pluck

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
“
He was consoled, however, by being told by the same nobleman at a private interview that his pluck was admired, while his fast friend, Sir Charles McGregor, received him with open arms.

View all »
Definitions (42)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. transitive verb To remove or detach by grasping and pulling abruptly with the fingers; pick: pluck a flower; pluck feathers from a chicken.
  2. transitive verb To pull out the hair or feathers of: pluck a chicken.
  3. transitive verb To remove abruptly or forcibly: plucked the child from school in midterm.
6 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (22)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (8)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • He was brimful of pluck, and seemed to enjoy the situation when they were attacked by overwhelming odds and had to fight hard and fiercely, such as befell more than once. —  The Sign of the Spider
  • 37. ITALIAN CHEESE This is prepared by chopping up the whole of the pig's pluck, the chitterlings, and a couple of pounds of the fat; mix this in a pan with seasoning composed of chopped sage, thyme, winter savory, allspice, pepper, and salt, and with it fill earthen pots or jars having lids to them; bake the contents in moderate heat; or if you have no oven of your own, send them to the baker's. —  A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes
  • 73. BELGIAN FAGGOTS These may be prepared with sheep's pluck, or even with bullock's liver, and other similar parts of meat; but a pig's pluck is preferable for the purpose. —  A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes
  • There can be no doubt about the courage of the French army; but pluck, alone, won't do. —  The Young Franc Tireurs And Their Adventures in the Franco-Prussian War
  • Energy, resourcefulness, coolness, persistence, endurance, pluck--where have these pet virtues of ours been more strikingly tested, where have they been more abundantly found, than in the French army The sign of the French colonial army is an anchor, and Frιjus is full of officers who wear it. —  Riviera Towns
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 289 times.

1 person has marked this word as a favorite.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

pluck:   plucked ·  plucking
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English plukken, from Old English pluccian, probably from Vulgar Latin *piluccāre, ultimately from Latin pilāre, from pilus, hair.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English plukken, plokken, plockien (preterit pluckede, plukkede, past participle plukked, irreg. preterit plyghte, past participle plyght), from Anglo-Saxon pluccian, placcigean, ploccan (preterit pluccede, past participle plucced) = Dutch plukken = Middle Low German plucken, Low German plukken = Old High German *pflucchen (not found), Middle High German phlücken, pflücken, German pflücken = Icelandic plukka, plokka = Swedish plocka = Danish plukke, pick, pluck; hardly a Tent, word, the Scandinavian forms being apparently borrowed from Anglo-Saxon or Low German, and these prob. derived, through Old High German or Goth, (where, however, the word is not recorded), from an early Roman (Late Latin) verb *pilicare, *pilucare, found in Old Italian pelucare, peluccare, piluccare, Italian piluccare, pluck(grapes), pick off (grapes) one by one, = Provencal pelucar, pick out, = Old French plocquer, in secondary form *plucquier, plusquier, pelukier, peluchier, French dial. (Picard) pluquer, pluskier, ploki, plucher, F. in comp. eplucher, pick, gather (the F. forms prob. in part reflections of the Low German); the ref. to plucking grapes (which suggests the means of its early introduction into Teut use) being a particular application or transfer of the orig. sense (Old Italian pelucare, etc.) ‘pick out hairs one by one,’ as explained under the derivative peruke, the verb (Late Latin *pilicarc, *pilucare) being derived, with freq. formative (L. -ic-are, Late Latin *-uc-are, Italian -uc-are, -ucc-are, etc., the same occurring in plunge, ult. from Middle Latin *plumbicare), from Latin pilus, hair, a hair: see pile, peruke (and periwig and wig), and also plush, from the same source. No evidence of the existence of the Roman (Late Latin) verb at a period early enough to produce the earliest Teutonic forms is found; analogous verbs in -icare are, however, found, and the explanation here given meets all the other conditions. It will be observed that pluck still refers in most instances to pulling hair or feathers or berries or flowers, and that L. pilus, hair, has had in other respects a remarkable development.
  2. = Dutch pluk, plucking, gathering, crop, = Swedish plock = Danish pluk, gathering; from the verb: see pluck, v. In def. 4 the same word, the heart, liver, and lights being ‘plucked out’ in preparing the carcass for market. In def. 5 a colloq. fig. use of sense 4, like heart and liver in similar expressions.
  3. Origin obscure; cf. Irish Gaelic pluc, a lump, knot, bunch, ploc, a club, plug, block: see plug and block.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/plək/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a week.

Recently looked up

tawdry · pretorian · common-sense · kaldane · taverns

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies · silence