Pluck vs Dig - What's the difference?
pluck | dig |
(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.
An instance of plucking
The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8
, passage=Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.}}
(label) To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up .
(label) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.
(label) To investigate, to research, often followed by out'' or ''up .
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= To thrust; to poke.
* Robynson (More's Utopia)
An archeological investigation.
(US, colloquial, dated) A plodding and laborious student.
A thrust; a poke.
(slang) To understand or show interest in.
(slang) To appreciate, or like.
As nouns the difference between pluck and dig
is that pluck is an instance of plucking while dig is ditch, dyke.As a verb pluck
is (lb) to pull something sharply; to pull something out.pluck
English
Verb
Derived terms
* plucker * plucking * pluck upNoun
(-)- ''Those tiny birds are hardly worth the tedious pluck
- He didn't get far with the attempt, but you have to admire his pluck .
Derived terms
* pluckyReferences
* * *Anagrams
*dig
English
(wikipedia dig)Etymology 1
From (etyl) , from (etyl) (m), itself a borrowing of the same Germanic root (from (etyl) (m)). More at ditch, dike.Verb
The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
- You should have seen children dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls.
Derived terms
* dig in * dig into * dig over * dig out * dig upNoun
(en noun)- He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.
Synonyms
* (archaeological investigation) excavationEtymology 2
From (African American Vernacular English); due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is .Random House Unabridged, 2001 Others do not propose a distinct etymology, instead considering this a semantic shift of the existing English term (compare dig in/dig into'').eg: OED, "dig", from ME vt ''diggenVerb
- You dig ?
- Baby, I dig you.
