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".
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) 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. 2006, Tom Cunliffe, Complete Yachtmaster, page 40:
(countable, uncountable) The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
(figuratively, informal, uncountable) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.
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. 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck.
pl hart ducha (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · de Mumm (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · pt arranca (instance of plucking) · fi sinnikkyys (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · is táp (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · nl plukken (instance of plucking) · it coraggio (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · pt fôlego (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · nl gepluk (instance of plucking) · pt depenagem (instance of plucking) · ca perseverància (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · cs droby (offal from the trunk of an animal) · ro perseverență (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · cs odvaha (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · cs trhnutí (instance of plucking) · ro smulgere (instance of plucking) · sh utroba (offal from the trunk of an animal) · ro măruntaie (offal from the trunk of an animal) · pt fressura (offal from the trunk of an animal) · hu belsőség (offal from the trunk of an animal) · pl odwaga (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · hu bátorság (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · cs škubnutí (instance of plucking) · nl slachtafval (offal from the trunk of an animal) · nl ingewanden (offal from the trunk of an animal) · tr yiğitlik (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · ru неотсту́пность (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · bg дърпане (instance of plucking) · de Mut (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · fr abats (offal from the trunk of an animal) · ro jumulire (instance of plucking) · lv plūkšana (instance of plucking) · sh drob (offal from the trunk of an animal) · mi kiriūka (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · bg скубане (instance of plucking) · pl podroby (offal from the trunk of an animal) · ru упо́рство (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · de Schneid (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · nl moed (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · nl pluk (instance of plucking) · nl doorzettingsvermogen (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · cs kuráž (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · ru насто́йчивость (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · it perseveranza (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · it fegato (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · es perseverancia (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · it nervi saldi (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · it coratella (offal from the trunk of an animal) · it corata (offal from the trunk of an animal) · bg карантия (offal from the trunk of an animal) · nv ajéí (offal from the trunk of an animal) · fr persévérance (nerve, fortitude, persistence) · ru потроха (offal from the trunk of an animal)
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".
Meanings
(transitive) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
"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. [...]. 2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 53:
The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined. 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled.
(transitive) 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. 1937, Labour Party (Great Britain), Report of the Annual Conference (volumes 37-40, page 281)
The hardest mission fell to the tanker aircraft, decidedly unglamorous birds, mainly flown by Air Force Reserve crews—most of them plucked from their airline jobs—so rapidly called into service that FAA rules for crew rest time on domestic airlines were quietly violated for the next several weeks. 1994, Tom Clancy, Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment, New York: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 281:
(transitive) 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.
(transitive) To remove feathers from (a bird).
Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
(archaic, transitive) 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. 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 64:
(transitive) To play a string instrument pizzicato.
Plucking a bow instrument may cause a string to break.
(intransitive) To pull or twitch sharply.
to pluck at somebody's sleeve
(UK, qualifier:university slang, transitive) 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 […]. 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:
He had been a medical student, and got plucked, his foes declared, in his examination. 1850, [Charles Kingsley], Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
The lists came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the university, that Pendennis of Boniface was plucked. 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XX, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
—Did you hear the results of the exams? he asked. Griffin was plucked. 1916, James Joyce, chapter V, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC:
I trust that I have never plucked a candidate in the Schools without giving him every opportunity of setting himself right. 1884 May 8, William Stubbs, “XVII. A Last Statutory Public Lecture”, in Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History and Kindred Subjects, published 1887, page 440:
[A]mong men likely to be plucked are these for the most part. He that hath no friends, he that hath many friends […]. 1835, Scriblerus Redivivus [pseudonym; Edward Caswall], “Topics Concerning Pluck”, in A New Art Teaching How to be Plucked, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: J. Vincent, →OCLC, page 34:
Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.
fi nykäistä (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hy փետրել (to remove feathers from a bird) · de pflücken (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · fr tirer (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru перебира́ть (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · it pizzicare (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · bg късам (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pl brzdęknąć (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · tr yolmak (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · lv plūkt (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ro jefui (to rob, steal forcibly) · eo pluki (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pl skubać (to remove feathers from a bird) · pt ferir (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · chr ᎫᏯᎩᎠ (to remove feathers from a bird) · cmn 摘 (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru выдёргивать (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · sl oskubati (to remove feathers from a bird) · ro scărmăna (to remove feathers from a bird) · ro peni (to remove feathers from a bird) · la vellō (to remove feathers from a bird) · la carpō (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hu kiszakít (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pl wyszarpnąć (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · bg оскубвам (to remove feathers from a bird) · mi kato (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hu leszakít (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · no røske (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · no plukke (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pl obrabować (to rob, steal forcibly) · pl zebrać (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hy պոկել (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · sk šklbať (to remove feathers from a bird) · ja もぐ (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hu kitép (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · tr yolmak (to remove feathers from a bird) · de ausrupfen (to remove feathers from a bird) · cs škubat (to remove feathers from a bird) · no ribbe (to remove feathers from a bird) · pl zbierać (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ta பறி (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · no plukke (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · de rupfen (to remove feathers from a bird) · nl plukken (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · he קטף (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · cs brnkat (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · cmn 彈撥 /弹拨 (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · nl rukken (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru огра́бить (to rob, steal forcibly) · nl grijpen (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · lv plūkt (to remove feathers from a bird) · ro scoate (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hu megkopaszt (to remove feathers from a bird) · mk скубне (to remove feathers from a bird) · nb plukke (to remove feathers from a bird) · hy փետել (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · gl depenar (to remove feathers from a bird) · fr voler (to rob, steal forcibly) · as পাৰা (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · fi kyniä (to remove feathers from a bird) · it spennare (to remove feathers from a bird) · sq nduk (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · nl pluimen (to rob, steal forcibly) · gl depenar (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · mi huhuti (to remove feathers from a bird) · vi nhổ (to remove feathers from a bird) · ro ciupi (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · pl rabować (to rob, steal forcibly) · mi hutihuti (to remove feathers from a bird) · nn plukka (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru щипа́ть (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · mi kape (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · mi tīkaro (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · lv izraut (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ar قَطَفَ (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · fa پر کندن (to remove feathers from a bird) · lt skinti (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · mi hīkaro (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · da plukke (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · it spennacchiare (to remove feathers from a bird) · sm ʻape (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · mi whawhaki (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru игра́ть (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · mi kopikopi (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · lt rėkšti (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · nl plukken (to remove feathers from a bird) · nl pluimen (to remove feathers from a bird) · ms memetik (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · cs vytrhnout (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · nb ribbe (to remove feathers from a bird) · es herir (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · csm ṭupum·yufe (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pl grabić (to rob, steal forcibly) · mi whaki (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · fr pincer (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · mi whakiwhaki (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · nl kaalplukken (to rob, steal forcibly) · ro jumuli (to remove feathers from a bird) · nl grabbelen (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pt depenar (to remove feathers from a bird) · de schlagen (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · pt palhetar (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · es desplumar (to remove feathers from a bird) · pt arrancar (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · oc esplumassar (to remove feathers from a bird) · mi huti (to remove feathers from a bird) · ru гра́бить (to rob, steal forcibly) · hy փետել (to remove feathers from a bird) · mk скубнува (to remove feathers from a bird) · gl depenicar (to remove feathers from a bird) · fi kiskaista (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · hu penget (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · ru вы́дернуть (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · fr plumer (to remove feathers from a bird) · la vellō (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ky жулуу (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · no plukke (to remove feathers from a bird) · ru ощи́пывать (to remove feathers from a bird) · afb قطف (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pl ograbić (to rob, steal forcibly) · ja 摘む (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pt depenar (to rob, steal forcibly) · no loppe (to rob, steal forcibly) · de zupfen (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · sl skubsti (to remove feathers from a bird) · ro jecmăni (to rob, steal forcibly) · sl ubirati (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · sv plocka (to remove feathers from a bird) · cu чесати (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · mi huti (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · is plokka (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ro prăda (to rob, steal forcibly) · bg ограбвам (to rob, steal forcibly) · sv plocka (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · tr koparmak (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · de abrupfen (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru ощипа́ть (to remove feathers from a bird) · fi näppäillä (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · pl oskubać (to remove feathers from a bird) · gl tirar (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · alt јулар (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · pt tocar (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · ga cluimhrigh (to remove feathers from a bird) · mi kato (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · io desplumizar (to remove feathers from a bird) · nci huihuitla (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · it spiumare (to remove feathers from a bird) · cs utrhnout (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · nl plukken (music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it) · grc τίλλω (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · cs oškubat (to remove feathers from a bird) · so rifid (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ru щипа́ть (to remove feathers from a bird) · ro trage (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · om rifuu (to pull something sharply; to pull something out) · ro smulge (to remove feathers from a bird)