Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pluke n.

1. a spot, a pimple, a boil.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 174: Pluke A pimple.
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 120: He’s after burstin’ one of his plukes.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 64: His biscuit-ersed face and his plukes complete ruin [his] image.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 50: He’s six foot plus with plooks bustin’ out his face.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 59: Ah kin see rid marks poking up like angry plukes.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: Another Cheesy Quaver with a face so covered in plooks it looks like he’s been batted about the chops with a bag of hundreds and thousands.

2. a general term of abuse [fig. use of sense 1].

2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 180: [T]he stock cast of leering, sneering plukes mumbling among themselves.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 204: Guaranteed also [...] to repel tunbellies and plooks.

In derivatives

pluky (adj.)

spotty.

1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 245: A plooky kid earning ninety quid a week.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] It didn’t matter what they had been before – accountant, plooky teen, quantity surveyor – in the city they imagined they could excoriate the skin of the past and start anew.

In compounds

pluke-face (adj.) (also plukey-faced)

a general term of abuse, lit. ‘spotty, acne-faced’.

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 5: Fuck off, ya plukey-faced wee hing oot.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 180: Woman nearer his age sweatin under the brown wha hide her lines with some plukeface teenagers hand up her front.