Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)

Displaying 3 result(s) from the 1913 edition:
Pluck (Page: 101)

Pluck (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plucked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Plucking.] [AS. pluccian; akin to LG. & D. plukken, G. pfl\'81cken, Icel. plokka, plukka, Dan. plukke, Sw. plocka. 27.]

1. To pull; to draw.



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

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


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 pluk up a nation. Jer. xii. 17. (b) To gather up; to summon; as, to pluck up courage.

Pluck (Page: 101)

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

Pluck (Page: 101)

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.


5. (Zoöl.) The lyrie. [Prov. Eng.]