Pluck

subs. (colloquial).—Courage; SPUNK (q.v.): also PLUCKINESS.—GROSE (1785). Hence PLUCKED = valiant: usually with ‘good,’ ‘well,’ ‘rare,’ &c.; HARD-PLUCKED (see quot. 1857); PLUCKY = bold, spiritedly, or indomitable; PLUCK-LESS = fainthearted.

  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London, I. i. My hand … possesses not weight enough to combat with thee, although the PLUCK, perhaps, attached to it may be always gay.

  1837.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Smuggler’s Leap,’ II. 146. If you’re ‘PLUCKY,’ and not over subject to fright.

  1854–5.  THACKERAY, The Newcomes, lix. ‘Shall I break off with the finest girl in England, and the BEST-PLUCKED one, and the cleverest and the wittiest?’… ‘By Jove, you are a GOOD-PLUCKED fellow, Farintosh.’

  1857.  T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, I. vii. The BAD-PLUCKED ones thinking that after all it isn’t worth while to keep it up.

  1857.  C. KINGSLEY, Two Years Ago, iv. A terrible HARD-PLUCKED one … hanged if I don’t think he has a thirty-two pound shot under his ribs instead of a heart.

  1858.  A. TROLLOPE, Doctor Thorne, xxix. ‘No,’ said Frank, PLUCKILY, as he put his horse into a faster trot.

  1860–3.  THACKERAY, The Roundabout Papers, ‘On a Peal of Bells,’ Note. I wish I was such a GOOD-PLUCKED one as you, Miss Anville.

  1863.  The Singular Story of a Lancashire Thief, 8. We prigs liked to see the RARE PLUCKED ’uns as much as decent folk hanker after Barnum and Blondin.

  1883.  MAX MÜLLER, Biographical Essays, 289. He set to work digging at Nineveh with that PLUCK … which he has since shown on other occasions.

  1889.  A. D. T. WHITNEY, A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite’s Life, vi. [Century]. Her quaint, queer expression, in which curiosity, PLUCKINESS, and a foretaste of amusement mingled.

  Verb. (university).—To reject at an examination. [Suggested derivations are (1) the analogy between PLUCKING, or divesting a bird of plumage, as the magpie in the fable (see quot. 1360); and (2) as given in quot. 1853. As regards PLOUGH (q.v.) Smyth-Palmer says (Folk Etymology) it seems a wilful perversion of PLUCK,… the Germ. pflücken having been sportively confounded with plough, Ger. pflügen, from pflug, a plough].—GROSE (1785). Also as subs.

  1360.  CHAUCER, The Romaunt of the Rose, 5983.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE (1866), 146]. I had attended an experimental course among the actresses; and had always found that the elderly candidates had been PLUCKED in their amours.

  1847.  C. BRONTË, Jane Eyre, x. He went to college, and he got—PLUCKED, as I think they call it.

  1849–50.  THACKERAY, Pendennis, xix. That is Pendennis of Boniface, who was PLUCKED yesterday. Ibid., xx. ‘Was it—was it done in public, sir?’ the Major said. ‘What?’ ‘The—the PLUCKING?’ asked the guardian.

  1849.  C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke, xx. He had been a medical student, and got PLUCKED, his foes declared, in his examination.

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, xi. [Note]. When the degrees are conferred, the name of each person is read out before he is presented to the Vice-Chancellor. The proctor then walks once up and down the room, so that any person who objects to the degree being granted may signify the same by pulling or PLUCKING the proctor’s robes. This has been occasionally done by tradesmen, in order to obtain payment of their ‘little bills,’ but such a proceeding is very rare, and the proctor’s promenade is usually undisturbed.

  1855.  BRISTED, Five Years in an English University, 258. If a man is PLUCKED—that is, does not get marks enough to pass—his chance of a Fellowship is done for.

  1886.  W. STUBBS, Lectures on Medieval and Modern History, 386. I trust that I have never plucked a candidate in the Schools without giving him every opportunity of setting himself right.

  2.  (venery).—To deflower: see DOCK.

  1608.  SHAKESPEARE, Pericles, vi. 5. Never PLUCKED yet, I can assure you. Is she not a fair creature?

  AGAINST THE PLUCK, adv. phr. (old).—Against the inclination.—GROSE (1785).

  TO PLUCK THE RIBAND, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.—GROSE (1785).

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. PLUCK THE RIBAND, or PLUCK SIR ONION, ring the Bell at the Tavern.

  See CROW; PIGEON; NOSE; ROSE.