The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pluck \Pluck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plucked; p. pr. & vb. n. Plucking.] [AS. pluccian; akin to LG. & D. plukken, G. pfl["u]cken, Icel. plokka, plukka, Dan. plukke, Sw. plocka. ?27.]
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To pull; to draw.
Its own nature . . . plucks on its own dissolution.
--Je?. Taylor. -
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. -
To strip of, or as of, feathers; as, to pluck a fowl.
They which pass by the way do pluck her.
--Ps. lxxx.?2. -
(Eng. Universities) To reject at an examination for degrees. --C. Bront['e]. 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.
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.To gather up; to summon; as, to pluck up courage.
Wiktionary
n. (context gerund of pluck English) An act in which something is plucked vb. (present participle of pluck English)
Wikipedia
Plucking, also referred to as quarrying, is a glacial phenomenon that is responsible for the erosion and transportation of individual pieces of bedrock, especially large "joint blocks". This occurs in a type of glacier called a "valley glacier". As a glacier moves down a valley, friction causes the basal ice of the glacier to melt and infiltrate joints (cracks) in the bedrock. The freezing and thawing action of the ice enlarges, widens, or causes further cracks in the bedrock as it changes volume across the ice/water phase transition (a form of hydraulic wedging), gradually loosening the rock between the joints. This produces large pieces of rock called joint blocks. Eventually these joint blocks come loose and become trapped in the glacier.
In this way, plucking has been linked to regelation. Rocks of all sizes can become trapped in the bottom of the glacier. Joint blocks up to three meters have been "plucked" and transported. These entrained rock fragments can also cause abrasion along the subsequent bedrock and walls. Plucking also leads to chatter marks, wedge shaped indentations left on the bedrock or other rock surfaces. Glacial plucking both exploits pre-existing fractures in the bedrock and requires continued fracturing to maintain the cycle of erosion. Glacial plucking is most significant where the rock surface is well jointed or fractured or where it contains exposed bed planes, as this allows meltwater and clasts to penetrate more easily.
Plucking of bedrock also occurs in steep upland rivers, and shares a number of similarities with glacial examples. In such cases, the loosening and detachment of blocks appears to result from a combination of (1) chemical and physical weathering along joints, (2) hydraulic wedging driven by smaller rock fragments getting into existing cracks, (3) crack propagation from stresses caused by impacts of large clasts already in transport by the river, and possibly (4) crack propagation driven by flexing resulting from pressure variation in the overlying water during floods. Loosened blocks are then carried away by fast flowing water during large floods, though the entrainment is believed to be significantly less efficient than the equivalent ability of ice to carry away blocks under glaciers.
Pluck or plucking may refer to:
- Plucking (hair removal), the removal of hair, fur, or feathers
- Feather-plucking, a behavior in birds
- Plucking post as used by birds of prey to dismember their prey
- Plucking (glaciation), a process related to glaciers
- Pluck (card game), a card game
- Pluck (offal), from the thoracic cavity of livestock
- One of two U.S. Navy ships named USS Pluck
- Pizzicato, a method of playing string instruments
- Pluck (software), cms written in PHP
- P.L.U.C.K. (song), by System of a Down
- Pluck (company), an Internet company acquired by Demand Media
- PLUCK, an RMITV television series
Plucking or tweezing can mean the process of removing human hair, animal hair or a bird's feathers by mechanically pulling the item from the owner's body.
In humans, this is done for personal grooming purposes, usually with tweezers. An epilator is a motorised hair plucker. Those under the influence of deliriants or trichotillomania may pluck their own hair out of habit.
Roman baths employed personnel solely to pluck hair from their clients' bodies.
In birds and animals, plucking is usually carried out by humans, sometimes called pluckers, to the carcass of the subject as part of food preparation.
Usage examples of "plucking".
She tried to ignore the dizzying perspective plucking at her peripheral vision over the low sides of the pod and concentrated instead on the stress and acceleration vectors graphically represented on her screen.
This duologue had, of course, left Wilbert Cream a bit out of it, just painted on the backdrop as you might say, and for some moments, knitting his brow, plucking at his moustache, shuffling the feet and allowing the limbs to twitch, he had been giving abundant evidence that in his opinion three was a crowd and that what the leafy glade needed to make it all that a leafy glade should be was a complete absence of Woosters.
I stood, plucking at the fringes on the skirt, while Maud ran to her jewel box for a brooch, that she fastened to my bosom, tilting her head to see how it looked.
His right hand moved, as if he were plucking a string, and Fiddlesticks, Jasper, and Scorn appeared on the green marble in front of Morwen.
The Genoese added that if we had kept cool we should have had the plucking of him, but that God alone knew what he would do now with the mark of the burn on his face.
He bad found it sitting in front of a square of grass, plucking stems and talking to itself, while poking at a black box full of buttons that perhaps made sense, but about what business he could not determine.
Although this plant is herbaceous, the old stems remain green until the new growths come into flower, and, in many varieties, by a little management in plucking out the buds during summer, flowers may be had in the autumn and well into winter.
He turned to Tanaka who was plucking a spear of iroko wood from his beard.
Plucking the other Krait from its place at the small of my back, I lofted it over to where it dropped on top of its mate.
Ryan stared as the woman staggered sideways, her nailless fingers plucking at the hilt of the slim dagger that sprouted from her neck like a bizarre pendant.
Not answering at once, Payn picked up a lute and lazily began plucking a tune.
Then his hands were plucking at her awful homespun dress, pulled its sash off, unbuttoned the placket up its back and tugged it down over her shoulders, tried to work her arms out of its sleeves.
Slaves were stringing garlands around the cornices of the little gazebos and shrines, pulling the ubiquitous, spiky leaves of dandelions from the miniature lawns, plucking pondweed from among the miles of waterlilies and setting up tables for buffets or platforms for musicians.
Plucking a pair of trousers from the suitcase, Ziranne lifted a skeptical eyebrow and turned to rehang the slacks in the closet.
Her fingers had twitched as she imagined plucking markin grubs from her deep, deep basket, digging for them between the layers of yellow riberry leaves.