pluck

/plʌk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/plʊk/

pluck verb: to pull something sharply; to pull something out.

Verb

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

(transitive) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
- She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled.
- 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
(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
Synonyms:

defeather
(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, transitive, university slang) To reject (a student) after they fail an examination for a degree.
- [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
- 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
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)

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
The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
(figuratively, informal, uncountable) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.
- He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck.
- 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...
Synonyms:

audacity, balls, bield, boldhead, boldness, bravehood, valor, braveness, bravery, courage
(slang, uncountable, African-American Vernacular) Cheap wine.

Synonyms:

plonk

pluck meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

pluck in Tamil

to pull something sharply; to pull something out: பறி paṟi

pluck in Bengali

উৎপাটন করা, তোলা, চয়ন করা

More languagesFewer languages

pluck in Telugu: త్రుంచు truñcu, కోయు kōyu, తుంచు tuñcu
pluck in Malayalam: പറിക്കുക paṟikkuka, പൂച്ചുക pūccuka
pluck in Kannada: ಧೈರ್ಯ, ಎದೆಗಾರಿಕೆ, ಛಾತಿ, ಕೆಚ್ಚುಬ್ದ
pluck in Punjabi: ਤੋੜਨਾ toṛnā
pluck in Odia: ତୋଳିବା toḷibā
pluck in Sanskrit: लुञ्चति luñcati, लुञ्च् luñc, वृज् vṛj, वृक्ते vṛkte
pluck in Assamese: পাৰা para
pluck in Arabic: قَطَفَ qaṭafa
pluck in Malay: memetik
pluck in Persian: پر کندن par kandan
pluck in Vietnamese: nhổ

Examples of pluck in a sentence

You only get one shot at this, and if I pluck a date from the air, you will judge me by it.2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 53:
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...
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:
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...

All 40 example sentences with pluck

Synonyms of pluck

18 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pluck

Forms of pluck

Verb
third-person singular present	plucks
present participle	plucking
past participle	plucked
past	plucked
past participle (obsolete)	pluckt
past (obsolete)	pluckt
Noun
plural	plucks

Past tense of pluck: plucked

Origin of pluck

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...

Words formed from pluck

Phrases with pluck

Words that rhyme with pluck

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Questions about pluck

What does pluck mean?: Pluck means to pull something sharply; to pull something out.
What is pluck in Hindi?: Pluck in Hindi is नोचना (nocnā). See Pluck meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pluck in a sentence?: You only get one shot at this, and if I pluck a date from the air, you will judge me by it.
What part of speech is pluck?: Pluck can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce pluck?: Pluck is pronounced /plʌk/.
What is the past tense of pluck?: The past tense of pluck is plucked.

Words near pluck in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pluck.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pluck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pluck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.