pluck

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pluck/plʌk/

▶verb

• 1 take hold of (something) and quickly remove it from its place.

  ■ catch hold of and pull quickly.

• 2 pull the feathers from (a bird's carcass) to prepare it for cooking.

  ■ pull some of the hairs from (one's eyebrows) to make them look neater.

• 3 sound (a stringed musical instrument) with one's finger or a plectrum.

▶noun

• 1 spirited and determined courage.

• 2 the heart, liver, and lungs of an animal as food.

– phrases
pluck up courage summon up enough courage to do something frightening.

– derivatives
plucker noun.

– origin OE ploccian, pluccian, of Gmc origin.