plucky
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of plucky
Explanation
To be plucky is to show courage. Plucky people are often underdogs fighting against the odds, like a plucky kid who scares away a burglar or a plucky kitten who refuses to run away from a Great Dane. Pluck is courage or heart, so to be plucky is to have those qualities. This word describes brave people and actions, and it means about the same as feisty and spunky. It often applies to people who bravely struggle against powerful forces. A short person playing basketball is plucky. You can be plucky in fighting a terrible disease. Anyone who refuses to give up, no matter what, is plucky.
Vocabulary lists containing plucky
A Doll's House
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Dragonwings
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Lyddie
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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.
See Examples For:
What to watch out for: While Morocco's run to the last four in Qatar was a surprise, this side contending in the United States are much more than plucky underdogs.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
They’re all here, and they have as much overconfident swagger as a plucky young star on the Disney Channel.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
Many of the news stories highlighted the threat to the unique plants and animals inhabiting the island off the coast of Santa Barbara, from plucky, pint-sized foxes to the rarest pine trees in North America.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
A plucky wolf known as OR-7 traveled into California from Oregon.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2026
Dandelion took up his cue with the same plucky readiness that he had shown in the wood.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
When the older animal approached again, one of the pluckier cubs took a cue from its high-ranking mom and stood tall, trying its best to look intimidating.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 8, 2024
Maybe if local papers were pluckier and more assertive about advocating for the people in their communities, those people would be more willing to pay.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2020
It piles on chance encounters, strange resemblance, a secret society and clever heroines such as Jane Austen crafted 40 years before, but even pluckier and less conventional.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2018
Yet Callis has overcome this obstacle by doing what any savvy politician must do when in need of a pluckier yarn: She borrows from her parents and grandparents.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2014
There was not a pluckier boy in school.
From The Home Life of Poe by Weiss, Susan Archer
And yet, with a wider view, the Bills remain the pluckiest of NFL underdogs.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2022
Celina Smith is the world’s pluckiest orphan and Taraji P. Henson is the scheming Miss Hannigan in “Annie Live!”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2021
It's edge-of-the-seat stuff from the off, and when the pluckiest reach the ocean, you'll be punching the air.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 22, 2013
Heck, even the dewiest, pluckiest ingénue would have a hard time staying fresh once she became an endlessly re-marketable brand name.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2012
Yet there are times when even the pluckiest among us fail to follow this sage advice.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
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.
