Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Pluck

Pluck (plŭk), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plucked; p. pr. & vb. n. Plucking.] [AS. pluccian; akin to LG. & D. plukken, G. pflücken, Icel. plokka, plukka, Dan. plukke, Sw. plocka. √27.] 1. To pull; to draw.

Its own nature . . . plucks on its own dissolution. Jer. Taylor.

2. Especially, to pull with sudden force or effort, or to pull off or out from something, with a twitch; to twitch; also, to gather, to pick; as, to pluck feathers from a fowl; to pluck hair or wool from a skin; to pluck grapes.

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. Milton.

E'en children followed, with endearing wile, And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile. Goldsmith.

3. To strip of, or as of, feathers; as, to pluck a fowl.

They which pass by the way do pluck her. Ps. lxxx.12.

4. (Eng. Universities) To reject at an examination for degrees. C. Bronté.

To pluck away, to pull away, or to separate by pulling; to tear away. — To pluck down, to pull down; to demolish; to reduce to a lower state. — to pluck off, to pull or tear off; as, to pluck off the skin. — to pluck up. (a) To tear up by the roots or from the foundation; to eradicate; to exterminate; to destroy; as, to pluck up a plant; to pluck up a nation. Jer. xii. 17. (b) To gather up; to summon; as, to pluck up courage.

Pluck, v. i. To make a motion of pulling or twitching; — usually with at; as, to pluck at one's gown.

Pluck, n. 1. The act of plucking; a pull; a twitch.

2. [Prob. so called as being plucked out after the animal is killed; or cf. Gael. & Ir. pluc a lump, a knot, a bunch.] The heart, liver, and lights of an animal.

3. Spirit; courage; indomitable resolution; fortitude.

Decay of English spirit, decay of manly pluck. Thackeray.

4. The act of plucking, or the state of being plucked, at college. See Pluck, v. t., 4.

5. (Zoöl.) The lyrie. [Prov. Eng.]

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.