pluck

Meaning

1. To pull something sharply; to pull something out
2. To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation.
3. To play (a single string on a musical instrument) by pulling and then releasing it, such as on a guitar.
4. To remove feathers from a bird.
5. To rob, steal from; to cheat or swindle (someone).
6. To play a string instrument pizzicato.
7. To pull or twitch sharply.
8. (obsolete) To reject (a student) after they fail an examination for a degree.
9. Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.

pick

⛏️

spunk

nip off

de-feather

scratch off

pluck out

shave off

snap off

snatch away

snip off

stoutheartedness

mobility

pinch back

yank out

gather flowers

heart and the liver

will-power

gatherpick

pick fruit

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/plʌk/

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-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".