Pluck vs Peck - What's the difference?
pluck | peck |
(lb) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
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*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.
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(lb) To remove feathers from a bird.
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*: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
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(lb) To play a string instrument pizzicato
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(lb) To pull or twitch sharply.
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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.
To strike or pierce with the beak or bill (of a bird) or similar instrument.
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) , Chapter 2
To form by striking with the beak or a pointed instrument.
To strike, pick, thrust against, or dig into, with a pointed instrument, especially with repeated quick movements.
To seize and pick up with the beak, or as if with the beak; to bite; to eat; often with up .
* Shakespeare
To do something in small, intermittent pieces.
To type by searching for each key individually.
(rare) To type in general.
To kiss briefly.
* 1997 , , (w, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) , Chapter 1; 1998 ed., Scholastic Press, ISBN 0-590-35340-3, p. 2
One quarter of a bushel; a dry measure of eight quarts.
A great deal; a large or excessive quantity.
* Milton
(regional) To throw.
To lurch forward; especially, of a horse, to stumble after hitting the ground with the toe instead of teh flat of the foot.
* 1928 , (Siegfried Sassoon), Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man , Penguin 2013, p. 97:
Discoloration caused by fungus growth or insects.
As a verb pluck
is (lb) to pull something sharply; to pull something out.As a noun pluck
is an instance of plucking.As a proper noun peck is
.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
*peck
English
(wikipedia peck)Etymology 1
From (etyl) pecken, pekken, variant of (etyl) picken, . More at pick.Verb
(en verb)- The birds pecked at their food.
- The rooster had been known to fly on her shoulder and peck her neck, so that now she carried a stick or took one of the children with her when she went to feed the fowls.
- to peck a hole in a tree
- (Addison)
- This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons peas.
- He has been pecking away at that project for some time now.
- At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.
Derived terms
* pecking order * peckish * woodpeckerEtymology 2
Probably from (etyl) (pek), (pekke), of uncertain origin.Noun
(en noun)- They picked a peck of wheat.
- She figured most children probably ate a peck of dirt before they turned ten.
- a peck of uncertainties and doubts
Etymology 3
Variant of .Verb
(en verb)- Anyhow, one of them fell, another one pecked badly, and Jerry disengaged himself from the group to scuttle up the short strip of meadow to win by a length.
Etymology 4
Noun
(-)- an occurrence of peck in rice