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Definition pluck

Etymology

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English ply??an ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"; > Modern English plitch), from Proto-Germanic *plukk?n?, *plukkijan? (“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”), 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 alternate etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukk?n?, *plukkijan? may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilucc?re, *pilic?re, a derivative of Latin pil?re (“to 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".

Verb

pluck (third-person singular simple present plucks, present participle plucking, simple past and past participle plucked or (obsolete) pluckt)

1. (transitive) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
2. (transitive) To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation.
3. (transitive, music) To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc.
4. (transitive) To remove feathers from a bird.
5. (transitive) To rob, fleece, steal forcibly
6. (transitive) To play a string instrument pizzicato.
7. (intransitive) To pull or twitch sharply.
8. (Britain, college slang, obsolete) To be rejected after failing an examination for a degree.
9. Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.

Noun

pluck (countable and uncountable, plural plucks)

1. An instance of plucking
2. The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
3. (informal) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.
4. (African American Vernacular, slang) Cheap wine.

Results 54 Words with the letters PLUCK

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