plucked; plucking; plucks
1
: to pull or pick off or out
2
3
: to move, remove, or separate forcibly or abruptly
plucked the child from the middle of the street
4
a
: to pick, pull, or grasp at
b
: to play by sounding the strings with the fingers or a pick
: to make a sharp pull or twitch
plucker
noun
1
: an act or instance of plucking or pulling
2
: the heart, liver, lungs, and trachea of a slaughtered animal especially as an item of food
3
: courageous readiness to fight or continue against odds : dogged resolution
Synonyms
Examples of pluck in a Sentence
Verb
My sister plucked a white hair from my head.
The hunter plucked the bird's feathers.
plucking petals off a flower
Firefighters plucked the child from the top floor of the burning building.
He'd been plucked from obscurity and thrust into the national spotlight.
a cat that was plucked off the city's streets last winter
He plucked a stone out of the river.
Noun
It takes pluck to do what she did.
She showed pluck in getting up on stage.
Recent Examples on the Web
Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 24 Apr. 2024
Even the less extreme looks feel like they’re plucked from the algorithm.
—Alana Hope Levinson, Vogue, 18 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pluck 
Verb
An oversimplified summary: Born poor and from a broken family in Tennessee, the teenage Anna-Mae Bullock was plucked by early rock pioneer Ike Turner (Deon Releford-Lee) into his band and renamed Tina Turner.
—Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 24 Apr. 2024
Even the less extreme looks feel like they’re plucked from the algorithm.
—Alana Hope Levinson, Vogue, 18 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pluck
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pluck.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Pluck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pluck. Accessed 5 May. 2024.
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