Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLUCK, v.t. [Sax. pluccian, which seems to be the same word, with a prefix, as lyccan or alucan, aluccan, to pull off or out; G. pflücken; D. plukken; Dan. plukker; Sw. plocka; Fr. eplucher; W. pliciaw, to pluck, to peel; plig, a peel.]

1. To pull with sudden force or effort, or to pull off, out or from, with a twitch. Thus we say, to pluck feathers from a fowl; to pluck hair or wool from a skin; to pluck grapes or other fruit. They pluck the fatherless from the breast. – Job xxiv.
2. To strip by plucking; as, to pluck a fowl. They that pass by do pluck her. – Ps. lxxx. The sense of this verb is modified by particles. To pluck away, to pull away, or to separate by pulling; to tear away. He shall pluck away his crop with his feathers. – Lev. i. To pluck down, to pull down; to demolish; or to reduce to a lower state. – Shak. To pluck off, is to pull or tear off; as, to pluck off the skin. – Mic. iii. To pluck on, to pull or draw on. [Obs.] – Shak. 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. To pluck out, to draw out suddenly, or to tear out; as, to pluck out the eyes; to pluck out the hand from the bosom. – Ps. lxxiv. To pluck up, to resume courage; properly, to pluck up the heart. [Not elegant.]