pluck up
Britishverb
-
to pull out; uproot
-
to muster (courage, one's spirits, etc)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But Ecclesiastes got it right about everything having a season, “a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
It took me 10 minutes to pluck up the courage to call him, to ask if he and his partner were all right.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2022
Shrewd pumpkin pickers will pluck up the best of the lot the first or second weekend in October, the grower said, but last weekend’s rains probably reduced the crowds.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 24, 2020
“If you're working with a bully, do you back down and cower, or do you try to pluck up your feathers and look larger?” she asked.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 9, 2020
At last I pluck up courage to enquire of the guards—it needs courage, for they are in uniform, and have lathis strapped to their wrists.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
