Word: pluck Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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". Pronunciation: /plʌk/, /plʊk/ 1. To pull something sharply; to pull something out Labels: transitive Example: She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled. Example: The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined. 2. To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: 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. 3. To play (a single string on a musical instrument) by pulling and then releasing it, such as on a guitar. Labels: transitive Example: Whereas a piano strikes the string, a harpsichord plucks it. 4. To remove feathers from (a bird). Labels: transitive Example: 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. 5. To rob, steal from; to cheat or swindle (someone). Labels: archaic, transitive Example: Indeed they seem to consider foreigners as strangers whom they should never see again, and might fairly pluck. 6. To play a string instrument pizzicato. Labels: transitive Example: Plucking a bow instrument may cause a string to break. 7. To pull or twitch sharply. Labels: intransitive Example: to pluck at somebody's sleeve 8. To reject (a student) after they fail an examination for a degree. Labels: UK, obsolete, transitive Example: For arguing that a man will be plucked take the Topics following: for among men likely to be plucked are these for the most part. He that hath no friends, he that hath many friends; the first because he hath none to put him in the right way; the second, because he hath many to draw him therefrom. Example: 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 […] 9. Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.