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

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