What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Grab vs Pluck - What's the difference?

grab | pluck |

As nouns the difference between grab and pluck

is that grab is grave while pluck is an instance of plucking.

As a verb pluck is

(lb) to pull something sharply; to pull something out.

grab

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Verb

(grabb)
  • To grip suddenly; to seize; to clutch.
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.}}
  • To make a sudden grasping or clutching motion (at something).
  • To restrain someone; to arrest.
  • To grip the attention; to enthrall.
  • (informal) To quickly collect or retrieve.
  • * 1987 James Grady Just a Shot Away , Bantam, p117
  • "I'll just grab my jacket," said Manh-Hung.
  • * 1999 Jillian Dagg, Racing Hearts, Thomas Bouregy & Co., p105
  • Hardly believing that Rafe actually planned to relax for a while, Kate nodded. "All right. Fine. I'll just go grab my purse."
  • * 2009 Mike Taylor, A Thousand Sleeps, Tate Publishing, p216
  • He looked at Albert and Ben, and then back to Nurse Allen. "I'll just grab my gear and be right back."
  • (informal) To consume something quickly.
  • To take the opportunity of.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 19, author=Paul Fletcher, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Blackpool 1-2 West Ham , passage=Both teams wasted good opportunities to score but it was the London side who did grab what proved to be the decisive third when the unmarked Vaz Te, a January signing from Barnsley, drilled the ball into the net from 12 yards.}}

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a sudden snatch (for something)
  • * 1931 Harold M. Sherman, "The Baseball Clown," Boys' Life, Vol. 21, No. 4 (April 1931), Boy Scouts of America, p47
  • The ball popped in and popped out, and when he made a grab for it on the ground he kicked it with his foot.
  • * 2003 J Davey, Six Years of Darkness, Trafford Publishing, p66
  • He made a grab for me and I swung my handbag at him as hard as I could.
  • a mechanical device that grabs or clutches
  • # a device for withdrawing drills, etc., from artesian and other wells that are drilled, bored, or driven
  • (media) a soundbite
  • Derived terms
    * attention-grabbing * ungrab * up for grabs
    Synonyms
    * catch * clutch * grasp * seize * snatch

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) and (etyl) ghurb? : crow, raven, a kind of Arab ship.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A two- or three-masted vessel used on the Malabar coast.
  • Anagrams

    * * ----

    pluck

    English

    Verb

  • (lb) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
  • :
  • *1900 , , Ch.I:
  • *:The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined.
  • To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc.
  • :
  • (lb) To remove feathers from a bird.
  • *
  • *:Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust.
  • (lb) To rob, fleece, steal forcibly
  • :
  • (lb) To play a string instrument pizzicato
  • :
  • (lb) To pull or twitch sharply.
  • :
  • To reject at an examination for degrees.
  • *1847 , , (Jane Eyre)
  • *:He went to college, and he got— plucked , I think they call it: and then his uncles wanted him to be a barrister, and study the law.
  • Derived terms

    * plucker * plucking * pluck up

    Noun

    (-)
  • An instance of plucking
  • ''Those tiny birds are hardly worth the tedious pluck
  • The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
  • Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.
  • He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck .

    Derived terms

    * plucky

    References

    * * *

    Anagrams

    *