pruck

English

Noun

pruck (countable and uncountable, plural prucks)

1. (onomatopoeia, countable) A soft staccato noise.
   • 1992, Deena Metzger, Tree and the Woman Who Slept with Men to Take the War Out of Them, →ISBN:

     The egg drops out of the ovary, is pressed down the tubes toward the uterus. The sound is pruck pruck pruck pruck.

   • 2013, Janice N. Harrington, Busy-Busy Little Chick, →ISBN:

     “Pruck! Pruck!” clucked Mama Nsoso. “We will work tomorrow. Today we will peck and gobble big fat worms.”

   • 2016, Abigail Winters, The Ghost of Madison Coffee, →ISBN:

     She could hear them chattering above. Pruck, pruck, pruck.

   • 2016, Henry Fleiss, An Unkindness of Ravens, →ISBN:

     Humphrey turned the wagon around, noticing the ravens that lined the road. Pruck, pruck, pruck.

2. (Ireland, uncountable) A collection of items that are attractive but useless.
   • 1997, John Campbell, The rose and the blade: new & selected poems, 1957-1997, →ISBN, page 105:

     We were moochin' some pruck in a Pollock Dock shed, when he crashed to the ground and in minutes was dead.

   • 2011, Brian Keenan, John McCarthy, Between Extremes, →ISBN, page 378:

     I also knew that when I was back home and lit my own votive candle in the recess of the clay figure, the hollow of its eyes would glow softly like the inscrutable stare of the living creature and I would know again the lure and pull of Patagonia. 'More pruck,' said John as we hurried back to catch Tren 010 to Santiago.

   • 2013, Christina Reid, Reid Plays, →ISBN:

     Remember that wee shop in Dublin sold the great yellowman? We always bought some forthe train journey home. Look, there's a photo of us all in the station. Laden with pruck.