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   pluck

   /plʌk/

   verb

   • 1. take hold of (something) and quickly remove it from its place: "she plucked a blade of grass" Similar removepick offpickpullpull off/outextracttaketake off
   • ▪ catch hold of and pull quickly: "she plucked his sleeve" Similar pull (at)tug (at)clutch (at)snatch (at)take hold ofgrabseizecatch (at)tweaktwitchjerkinformal:yank
   • ▪ pull the feathers from (a bird's carcass) to prepare it for cooking: "the turkeys are plucked and cleaned by machine" Similar remove the feathers fromstrip of feathersrare:deplumedisplume
   • ▪ pull some of the hairs from (one's eyebrows) to make them look neater: "whether you pluck your eyebrows depends on your type of looks"
   • ▪ (of glacier ice) break off (pieces of rock) by mechanical force.
   • 2. quickly or suddenly remove someone from a dangerous or unpleasant situation: "the baby was plucked from a grim orphanage"
   • 3. sound (a musical instrument or its strings) with one's finger or a plectrum: "she picked up her guitar and plucked it idly" Similar strumpickthrumtwangplunkfingerplay pizzicato

   noun

   • 1. spirited and determined courage: "it must have taken a lot of pluck to walk along a path marked ‘Danger’"
   • 2. the heart, liver, and lungs of an animal as food.

   Word Origin late Old Englishploccian, pluccian, of Germanic origin; related to Flemish plokken; probably from the base of Old French (es)peluchier ‘to pluck’. Sense 1 of the noun is originally boxers' slang.

   Derivatives

   • 1. plucker noun
   • 2. pluckless adjective

   Scrabble Points: 13

   • P

     3

   • L

     1

   • U

     1

   • C

     3

   • K

     5

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