plucked; plucking; plucks
1
: to pull or pick off or out
plucking feathers
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
plucked the map down from the wall
b
: to play by sounding the strings with the fingers or a pick
plucking a banjo
: 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
It took pluck to speak before such a tough crowd.
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
Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 4 Apr. 2026
One of the options NASA has now for any issues with ML1 is to pluck items off of the mobile launcher 2 (ML2), the $1 billion plus launch tower that had been under construction adjacent to KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building for the last couple of years.
—Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 Apr. 2026
Mindy Uhrlaub, STAT, 16 Mar. 2026
The opening guitar plucks received loads of low-mid resonance and crisp string textures, and when the track fully kicked in, each element in the busy mix got plenty of attention and detail.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 6 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pluck
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Verb
Or perhaps this is the time to turn to the college ranks, which at the moment are starting to more closely resemble the pro ranks, and pluck someone who could add youth and vitality, while no longer having to worry about the recruiting trail.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 4 Apr. 2026
One of the options NASA has now for any issues with ML1 is to pluck items off of the mobile launcher 2 (ML2), the $1 billion plus launch tower that had been under construction adjacent to KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building for the last couple of years.
—Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 Apr. 2026
Noun
When those practitioners are taken away from patients, our pluck and determination waver.
—Mindy Uhrlaub, STAT, 16 Mar. 2026
The opening guitar plucks received loads of low-mid resonance and crisp string textures, and when the track fully kicked in, each element in the busy mix got plenty of attention and detail.
—Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 6 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for pluck
Cite this Entry
“Pluck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pluck. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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