1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv. 3. Here will be Zekiel Edgworth, and three or four gallants with him at night, and I have neither plover nor quail for them; persuade this . . . to become a bird of the game.
Plowter, verb. (venery).—To
copulate: see Greens and Ride.
Pluck, subs. (colloquial).—Courage;
spunk (q.v.): also pluckiness.—Grose
(1785). Hence
plucked = valiant: usually with
'good,' 'well,' 'rare,' &c.;
hard-plucked (see quot. 1857);
plucky = bold, spiritedly, or
indomitable; pluck-less =
fainthearted.
1821. Egan, Life in London, 1. i. My hand . . . possesses not weight enough to combat with thee, although the pluck, perhaps, attached to it may be always gay.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ii. 146. If you're plucky, and not over-subject to fright.
1854-5. Thackeray, Newcomes, lix. 'Shall I break off with the finest girl in England, and the best-plucked one, and the cleverest and the wittiest?' . . . 'By Jove, you are a good-plucked fellow, Farintosh.'
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1. vii. The bad-plucked ones thinking that after all it isn't worth while to keep it up.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, iv. A terrible hard-plucked one . . . hanged if I don't think he has a thirty-two pound shot under his ribs instead of a heart.
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thorn, xxix. 'No,' said Frank, pluckily, as he put his horse into a faster trot.
1860-3. Thackeray, Roundabout Papers, 'On a Peal of Bells,' Note. I wish I was such a good-plucked one as you, Miss Anville.
1863. Story of a Lancashire Thief, 8. We prigs liked to see the rare plucked 'uns as much as decent folk hanker after Barnum and Blondin.
1883. Max Muller, Biog. Essays, 289. He set to work digging at Nineveh with that pluck . . . which he has since shown on other occasions.
1889. Mrs. Whitney, Leslie Goldthwaite, vi. [Century]. Her quaint, queer expression, in which curiosity, pluckiness, and a foretaste of amusement mingled.
Verb. (University).—To reject at an examination. [Suggested derivations are (1) the analogy between plucking, or divesting a bird of plumage, as the magpie in the fable (see quot. 1360); and (2) as given in quot. 1853. As regards plough (q.v.) Smyth-Palmer says (Folk Etymology) it seems a wilful perversion of pluck, . . . the Germ, pflücken having been sportively confounded with plough, Ger. pflügen, from pflug, a plough].—Grose (1785). Also as subs.
1360. Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose, 5983. I shall so pulle him, if I can That he shall in a fewe stoundes Lese all his markes and his poundes, . . . Our maidens shall eke plucke him so, That he shall neden fethers mo.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge (1866), 146]. I had attended an experimental course among the actresses; and had always found that the elderly candidates had been plucked in their amours.
1847. C. Bronte, Jane Eyre, x. He went to college, and he got plucked, as I think they call it.
1849-50. Thackeray, Pendennis, xix. Pendennis of Boniface was plucked. Ibid., xx. 'Was it done in public,' the Major said. 'What?' 'The the plucking,' asked the guardian.
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xx. He had been a medical student, and got plucked, his foes declared, in his examination.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, xi. [Note]. When the degrees are conferred, the name of each person is read out before he is presented to the Vice-Chancellor. The proctor then walks once up and down the room, so that any person who objects to the degree being granted may signify the same by pulling or plucking the proctor's robes. This has been occasionally done by tradesmen, in order to obtain payment of their 'little bills,' but such a proceeding is very rare, and the proctor's promenade is usually undisturbed.
