plucking

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
   • She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled.
2. (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)
3. (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.
4. (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

5. (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
6. (transitive) To play a string instrument pizzicato.
   • Plucking a bow instrument may cause a string to break.

See all 13 meanings of pluck