| English > English | |
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| pluck | |
| 1. v. To pull something sharply; to pull something out |  |
| She plucked the phone from her bag and dialled. | |
| 2. v. To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation. | |
| 3. v. (transitive, music) To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc. | |
| Whereas a piano strikes the string, a harpsichord plucks it. | |
| 4. v. To remove feathers from a bird. | |
| 5. v. To rob, fleece, steal forcibly | |
| The horny highwayman plucked his victims to their underwear, or attractive ones all the way. | |
| 6. v. To play a string instrument pizzicato. | |
| Plucking a bow instrument may cause a string to break. | |
| 7. v. (intransitive) To pull or twitch sharply. | |
| to pluck at somebody's sleeve | |
| 8. v. (universities) To reject at an examination for degrees. | |
| 9. n. An instance of plucking | |
| Those tiny birds are hardly worth the tedious pluck | |
| 10. n. The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals. | |
| 11. n. (informal) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence. | |
| He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck. | |
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