Synonyms of plucking

plucking

verb

present participle of pluck

as in squeezing

to rob by the use of trickery or threats

the Internet opened up a whole new medium for con artists to pluck the gullible

Synonyms & Similar Words

• squeezing
• stinging
• hustling
• cheating
• sticking
• beating
• screwing
• doing
• bleeding
• fiddling
• fleecing
• chiseling
• suckering
• reaming
• tricking
• swindling
• victimizing
• deceiving
• diddling
• shorting
• defrauding
• exploiting
• skinning
• rooking
• gaffing
• bilking
• mulcting
• conning
• shortchanging
• shaking down
• hosing
• cozening
• clipping
• ripping off
• stiffing
• fooling
• nobbling
• betraying
• flimflamming
• euchring
• doing in
• thimblerigging
• wrenching
• chousing
• taking for a ride
• extorting
• wringing
• nicking
• gouging
• taking to the cleaners
• soaking
• skunking
• milking
• wresting
• selling a bill of goods to
• overcharging
• gulling
• duping
• bitching
• double-crossing
• roping (in)
• bamboozling
• fast-talking

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of plucking

Dramatic photos taken from the scene show a firefighter on a tower ladder plucking a panicked child from a fire escape. — Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 5 Aug. 2026

Now, Yupia appears on Khramov’s debut album, where the horse literally makes music by strumming guitars with his nose and plucking strings with his teeth. — Maddie Rhodes, USA Today, 4 Aug. 2026

Behind a huge picture window, a group of women in black caps were plucking bones from anchovies one by one with tweezers. — Simon Willis, Travel + Leisure, 4 Aug. 2026

Alix Earle, and her younger sister Ashtin, have given the skinny brow trend their own proverbial thumbs up, plucking away their natural shape over the last year. — Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 27 July 2026

The fact that celebrity landed upon him, plucking him from the obscurity of his mission to represent the burgeoning discourse on the disease, says more about the world that orbited him than his actions on the island or his own political nous. — Literary Hub, 20 July 2026

Unlike a razor, which simply cuts hair at the surface, an epilator removes it from the root by mechanically plucking multiple hairs at once. — Iman Balagam, Vogue, 17 July 2026

Scarlett, meanwhile, keeps a steady gaze while plucking away at her bass. — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 15 July 2026

Harvest your strawberries by gently plucking or cutting the stem less than half an inch above the berry. — Samantha Johnson, Martha Stewart, 12 July 2026