different between tug vs pluck

English

Etymology

From Middle English tuggen, toggen, from Old English togian (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-Germanic *tug?n? (“to draw, tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Cognate with Middle Low German togen (“to draw”), Middle High German zogen (“to pull, tear off”), Icelandic toga (“to pull, draw”). Related to tee, tow.

Pronunciation

• enPR: t?g, IPA^(key): /t??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

tug (third-person singular simple present tugs, present participle tugging, simple past and past participle tugged)

1. (transitive) to pull or drag with great effort

   The police officers tugged the drunkard out of the pub.

2. (transitive) to pull hard repeatedly

   He lost his patience trying to undo his shoe-lace, but tugging it made the knot even tighter.

3. (transitive) to tow by tugboat

Derived terms

• tug down
• tug up

Translations

Noun

tug (plural tugs)

1. A sudden powerful pull.

   • At the tug he falls, / Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.
2. (nautical) A tugboat.
3. (obsolete) A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

4. A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.
5. (mining) An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.
6. (slang) An act of masturbation.

   He had a quick tug to calm himself down before his date.

Derived terms

• tug of war

Translations

Anagrams

• GUT, UTG, gut

Elfdalian

Noun

tug n

1. train

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Icelandic

Noun

tug

1. inflection of tugur:
   1. indefinite accusative singular
   2. indefinite dative singular

Scottish Gaelic

Verb

tug

1. past tense of thoir

Usage notes

• This is the dependent form, the basic form being thug.

English

Etymology

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English ply??an ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"; > Modern English plitch), from Proto-Germanic *plukk?n?, *plukkijan? (“to pluck”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Perhaps related to Old English pullian (“to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian plukje (“to pluck”), Dutch plukken (“to pluck”), Limburgish plógte (“to pluck”), Low German plukken (“to pluck”), German pflücken (“to pluck, pick”), Danish and Norwegian plukke (“to pick”), Swedish plocka (“to pick, pluck, cull”), Icelandic plokka, plukka (“to pluck, pull”). More at pull.

An alternate etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukk?n?, *plukkijan? may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilucc?re, *pilic?re, a derivative of Latin pil?re (“to deprive of hair, make bald, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence.

The noun sense of "heart, liver, and lights of an animal" comes from it being plucked out of the carcass after the animal is killed; the sense of "fortitude, boldness" derives from this meaning, originally being a boxing slang denoting a prize-ring, with semantic development from "heart", the symbol of courage, to "fortitude, boldness".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Verb

pluck (third-person singular simple present plucks, present participle plucking, simple past and past participle plucked or (obsolete) pluckt)

1. (transitive) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Ch.I:

     The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined.
2. (transitive) To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation.
3. (transitive, music) To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc.

4. (transitive) To remove feathers from a bird.
5. (transitive) To rob, fleece, steal forcibly

6. (transitive) To play a string instrument pizzicato.

7. (intransitive) To pull or twitch sharply.

8. (Britain, college slang, obsolete) To be rejected after failing an examination for a degree.
9. Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.

Derived terms

• plucker
• plucking
• pluck up

Translations

Noun

pluck (countable and uncountable, plural plucks)

1. An instance of plucking or pulling sharply.
   • 2006, Tom Cunliffe, Complete Yachtmaster (page 40)

     If you find yourself in this position, there is nothing for it but to haul out using external assistance. This may be from a friend who will give you a pluck off the wall, or you may be able to manage from your own resources.

2. The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
4. (informal, figuratively, uncountable) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:courage

5. (African-American Vernacular, slang, uncountable) Cheap wine.

   Synonym: plonk

Derived terms

• plucky

Translations

References

• pluck in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• pluck in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• UK plc