Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. brave, courageous; thus pluckily adv.; pluckiness n.

1841		R. Barham ‘The Smuggler’s Leap’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 167: If you’re ‘plucky,’ and not over subject to fright.
1852		F.E. Smedley Lewis Arundel 255: The old Gineral’s pluckey enough for anything, but his legs ain’t so young as they used to be.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 99: Well, he is a plucky youngster.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 16/1: It is called ‘plucky’ to bear pain without complaining.
1872		in F. Roe Army Letters from An Officer’s Wife (1909) 77: The colored troops were real soldiers that night, alert and plucky.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Mar. 2/3: [He] said he knew who was the pluckiest sculler.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 70: We weren’t likely to have anything to ride that wasn’t middlin’ fast and plucky.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 7: You were a plucky little devil at school.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 10 Nov. 91: This brave beast, who displayed such a fine courage against great odds, and made so plucky a fight for his life.
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 83: She was a decent old body, and a plucky one.
1923		‘Sapper’ Jim Maitland (1953) 138: Dashed plucky thing on her part.
1940		V. Hodgson Diaries (1999) 16 Nov. 89: She felt she must say goodbye to everything. She is very plucky over it.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 59: I think you’re both wizard plucky.
1968		P. Barnes Ruling Class I viii: Damned plucky filly.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 285: The disaster-prone British, obsessed with their own fortitude [...] – their love of a plucky defeat.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 39: A regiment of plucky little gurkhas.
1999		Guardian Friday Rev. 11 June 5: Do we really need another plucky little movie that says ‘love me’ to the audience in a wheedling voice?
2000		Guardian Weekend 1 Jan. 8: The photography shows the plucky Cockneys.

2. a negative intensifier.

1892		Kipling ‘Mandalay’ in Barrack-Room Ballads (1893) 191: Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed ’er where she stud.
1929		(con. 1900s) J.B. Booth London Town 96: A plucky lot ’e cares for you an’ me.