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Pluck vs Gather - What's the difference?

pluck | gather |

As verbs the difference between pluck and gather

is that pluck is (lb) to pull something sharply; to pull something out while gather is to collect; normally separate things.

As nouns the difference between pluck and gather

is that pluck is an instance of plucking while gather is a plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.

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

    *

    gather

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To collect; normally separate things.
  • I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.
    She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.
  • # Especially, to harvest food.
  • We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
  • # To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.
  • Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
  • # To congregate, or assemble.
  • People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
  • #* Tennyson
  • Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.
  • # To grow gradually larger by accretion.
  • #* Francis Bacon
  • Their snowball did not gather as it went.
  • To bring parts of a whole closer.
  • She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
  • # (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.
  • A gown should be gathered around the top so that it will remain shaped.
  • # (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.
  • Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.
  • If you want to emphasise the shape, it is possible to gather the waistline.
  • # (architecture) To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as for example where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue.
  • # (nautical) To haul in; to take up.
  • to gather the slack of a rope
  • To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.
  • From his silence, I gathered that things had not gone well.
    I gather from Aunty May that you had a good day at the match.
  • (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus
  • Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
  • (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
  • To gain; to win.
  • * Dryden
  • He gathers ground upon her in the chase.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
  • The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
  • The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
  • (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
  • Derived terms

    * gathering iron