plucky

[ pluhk-ee ]
See synonyms for plucky on Thesaurus.com
adjective,pluck·i·er, pluck·i·est.
  1. having or showing pluck or courage; brave: The drowning swimmer was rescued by a plucky schoolboy.

Origin of plucky

1
First recorded in 1820–30; pluck + -y1

Other words for plucky

Other words from plucky

  • pluck·i·ly, adverb
  • pluck·i·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use plucky in a sentence

  • To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than to push forward pluckily and make a fall.

    The Pocket R.L.S. | Robert Louis Stevenson
  • I got him to the little brook and poked his head into the icy water, and after a while he sat up pluckily.

    In Search of the Unknown | Robert W. Chambers
  • He pluckily returned at once to the other end and faced him again.

    In Nesting Time | Olive Thorne Miller
  • However the reis pluckily led the way, and seized him by the hind leg, when the crowd of men rushed in, and we had a grand tussle.

    The Desert World | Arthur Mangin
  • "Yes, I'm tired, but I'm going to keep straight on until dinner-time," she answered pluckily.

    A Little Girl in Old Salem | Amanda Minnie Douglas

British Dictionary definitions for plucky

plucky

/ (ˈplʌkɪ) /


adjectivepluckier or pluckiest
  1. having or showing courage in the face of difficulties, danger, etc

Derived forms of plucky

  • pluckily, adverb
  • pluckiness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012