pluck at

phrasal verb

plucked at; plucking at; plucks at

: to pull part of (something) with one's fingers especially more than once

He nervously plucked at the blanket.

Examples of pluck at in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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In the early part of the 20th century, there might not have been a more dynamic and fascinating American Olympian than the swimmer plucked at 21 years old from Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach who, despite only minimal training, won gold medals in the 100-meter freestyle at the 1912 and 1920 Olympics. —

Les Carpenter, Washington Post, 18 July 2024 In the wild, turkeys pick and pluck at many of the same forbs preferred by whitetails. —

Will Brantley, Field & Stream, 17 Apr. 2024 The earthworms beneath the soil haven’t the least idea of the frets that pluck at my heart. —

Danny Heitman, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Nov. 2023 The fateful numbers will be plucked at 10:59 p.m. ET Wednesday. —

Holly Yan, CNN, 4 Oct. 2023 Hana has a habit of picking up feathers to give to the village chief, who makes them into quills to pluck at the strings of a harpsichord. —

Jessica Kiang, Variety, 4 Sep. 2023 The six coveted numbers will be plucked at 11 p.m. ET Friday. —

Holly Yan, CNN, 21 July 2023 Instead use tweezers and pluck at the site of the bite as close to the skin as possible. —

Timmy Broderick, Scientific American, 14 June 2023 Often center stage, Tess would bop around and dance in place, sometimes whipping her hair around while plucking at her bass. —

Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2023