Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to have sexual intercourse.

c.1608		Shakespeare Pericles 19: Never pluckt yet I can assure you.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) III ii: A girl of Fifteen, smooth as Satten [...] Plump and of the first down: I’le take her with her guts in her Belly, and warm her with a Countrey-dance or two, then pluck her, and lay her dry betwixt a couple of sheets.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 197: All the way after they did kiss, And all the way homeward they pluckt her.
1732		Progress of a Rake 11: You shall have the first plucking of her Feathers.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

2. to rob, to defraud; to steal.

1652		Mercurius Democritus 22-29 Dec. 301: In the like manner he went to the Grocers, telling the same Tale [...] and so left them a birding for Wood-cocks and pluck’d them of their best Feathers.
1664		T. Jordan ‘The Cheaters Cheated’ Royal Arbor 35: nim.: Good morrow, fellow Filcher / What! do we sink or swim? / Thou look’st so like a pilcher. filch.: Good morrow fellow Nim. / The devils in our destiny, / I cannot get a pluck.
1675		Head Art of Wheedling 109: He dives into their pockets, and sends them home pluckt.
1680		Character of a Town-Miss in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 4: Having thus got the Woodcock into the Pitfall, she resolves to Pluck him.
1781		Belle’s Stratagem 15: May I never pluck another cull, if I don’t make Sir Robert Petres [...] take you into immediate custodyl.
1796		Sporting Mag. Nov. IX 82/2: As they had plucked me of the last feather, I got up, and, in imitation of my betters, twang’d off a few dam’mes, and retired.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 169: I decamped as expeditiously as my legs could carry me [...] without caring a curse what became of the young brood I had plucked.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 63: ’Tis no rebuke / For a Greek to pluck all, from a groom to a duke.
1829		Chester Chron. 10 July 3/4: The case was dismissed, and this green-plucked-goose was obliged to leave the Court [...] with empty pockets.
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 30: ‘You’re not the first greenhorn that they have plucked. Well,’ said he, as he walked away, ‘keep the key of your own chest – that’s all’.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 29: The spy finds no difficulty in leading a willing victim to the gambling-house, where he is scientifically plucked, and left to make his way to his hotel, a ruined, miserable man.
1849		Sam Sly 13 Jan. 4/2: ‘Doctor’ Green supplied the noxious drug, and always managed to get a decent fee[...] from the plucked one, for pro- curing, or pretending to procure an antidote.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 88: The sporting gent [...] who is so stupendously knowing, and is so stupidly and grievously plucked by the most transparent sharpers upon earth!
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 412: It was evident that he was ‘nothing to them,’ either as a comrade or a gull to be plucked.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 329: They viewed every gambler who set up his game in their midst, as a fat subject to be plucked by them.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 115: ‘He would be a deuced good fellow now — at least [...] as long as he has got any feathers, and would allow himself to be plucked’.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 June 2/2: The rustics who come to New York for a lark mustn’t be surprised if they get ‘plucked’ and ‘roasted’.
1889		Sporting Times 3 Aug. 3/1: The method of plucking the mug varies according to circumstances .
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 19 Oct. 6/2: E. Benzon, the ‘Jewbilly’ [...] has been plucked in less time and left barer than any previous pigeon.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 6 Dec. 5/1: The Old ’Un having once been at Nottingham goose fair, where he was plucked.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 152: During the racing season there is a large class of thieves who attend the principal meetings [...] for ‘plucking’ any ‘greenhorn’ across whom they may come.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 19 June 4/2: The Long Firm deliberately laid themselves out to pluck the public.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 190: He was immediately thrown into a cold perspiration lest the other recall the game of cards which had ended both disastrously and offensively for the ‘plucked’ one.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 16: He had got in with an Australian mob, which had run him for the sake of his name to help ‘pluck’ people with social ambitions.
1928		J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 102: The squawk of a plucked sucker is music to the racketeer’s ears.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 80: [They] will later guide his steps to [...] such spot selected for the ‘plucking’.
1943		W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 36: Johnny was a little awed by the thought of all that money lying around waiting to be plucked.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 161/1: Pluck. To rob a victim, usually in some form of swindle.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxviii 10/2: pluck: Take something from someone, not necessarily steal.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 21: His crew tried their hand at slinging only to get plucked bad by the big boys.

3. (UK/US campus) to find lacking, deficient.

1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn) n.p.: To pluck also signifies to deny a degree to a candidate at one of the universities, on account of insufficiency.].
1827		W.T. Moncrieff Bashful Man II iv: We’re the Greeks that are never plucked.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair II 131: He’s very near to getting his degree, you know. He’s only been plucked twice.
1854		T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 34: ‘Such fun, mamma; pa’s plucked again’.
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash I 16: Ploughed is the new Oxfordish for ‘plucked’ [...] Plucked was vulgar, so now they are ploughed.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 56: Poor Ellison has been plucked again [...] Broughton the gentleman-commoner of Worcester College, has been ploughed for his Greats.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 July 4/3: He has unsuccessfully contested about eight elections, and the only parallel to his case which can be found is that of the man who has been ‘plucked’ twice annually for twelve years past at the first year arts’ exam, at Mel bourne University.
1888		‘’Arry on Competitive Examination’ in Punch 1 Dec. 253/2: Appointment by patronage [...] I freeze onto that. / Wot patron of sense would pluck me ’cos I ain’t got grammar quite pat?
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 59: Plucked, to fail in an examination.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 49: pluck, v. To report a student as deficient in examination.
1916		A. Brazil Luckiest Girl in School 237: ‘Miss Goodson doesn’t tell me plump out that I’ll be plucked, but I can see she thinks so!’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 40: plucked, to be. To flunk an examination.

4. (US) to arrest.

1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘Sisters of the Golden Circle’ in Four Million (1915) 206: And you might add it took five of ’em to pluck the pink.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Plucked, arrested.
1953		T. Thursday ‘Case of the Honest Thieves’ in Famous Detective Story 🌐 I had to pluck ’em twice for assault and battery.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 252: pluck (v) Arrest.

5. (US campus) to expel.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 49: pluck, v. To expel.

6. (US campus) to reprimand.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 49: pluck, v. To take down, call to account.

7. (US) to cashier or retire a military officer.

1941		Sun (Baltimore) 5 Aug. 11/3: There are numerous retirements under way. However, it is highly unlikely that the army will make announcement of the officers who are being ‘plucked’ under the recent act permitting the Secretary of War to retire those whom a board has decreed to be ‘unsuited for further active duty’ [OED].
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.

8. (US black) to choose one’s woman.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 153: ‘Hey girl, I met this fine dude last night.’ They say, ‘Oh, so you done got plucked.’.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 130: Which is to say I discover her an pluck her out the crowd.

9. (Aus.) to deprive of (a sum of money).

1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 37: On the other hand if it [i.e. a racehorse] ain’t a dud [...] we can really pluck a few pullets.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 164: Yair - and several rails books, including one of the Waterhouses, I think, were plucked for a motza.