pluck
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Pronunciation
- IPA: /plʌk/
pluck (plucks, present participle plucking; past and past participle plucked)
- (transitive) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
- She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled.
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House_Behind_the_Cedars_(book), Ch.I:
- The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined.
- (transitive) To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation.
- (transitive, music) To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc.
- Whereas a piano strikes the string, a harpsichord plucks it.
- (transitive) To remove feathers from a bird.
- 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175 ↗:
- 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.
- (transitive) To rob, fleece, steal forcibly
- The horny highwayman plucked his victims to their underwear, or attractive ones all the way.
- (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, university slang, obsolete) To be rejected after failing an examination for a degree.
- Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.
- French: plumer
- German: rupfen, ausrupfen
- Italian: spennare, spennacchiare, spiumare
- Portuguese: depenar
- Russian: ощи́пывать
- Spanish: desplumar
- French: voler
- Russian: гра́бить
pluck
- An instance of plucking
- Those tiny birds are hardly worth the tedious pluck
- The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
- (informal) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.
- He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck.
- (AAVE, slang) Cheap wine.
- French: persévérance
- Italian: perseveranza, coraggio, nervi saldi, fegato
- Portuguese: perseverança
- Russian: насто́йчивость
- Spanish: perseverancia
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003