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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1983 (DOST Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Pluk(e, Pluik, n.² Also: plouk, plowk, plouck; pluck. [Late ME. and e.m.E. plowke (Cath. Angl.), plouke (1562), plucke (1562), of unknown origin. Gael. pluc (a knot, tumour, pimple, the rot in sheep) ‘appears to be from Scots’ (OED.).]

1. A disease of sheep, ‘rot’ or ‘scab’. = Pilsoucht n. 14.. Edinb. Univ. MS. (Borland 207) fol. 136.
Si que oues illo morbo scabei qui vocatur pilsoucht vel pluk in vicecomitatu vestro iuste examinatur [etc.]

2. A growth, swelling or tumour; a boil; a pimple.Also, comb. in pluckeuill, a disease characterized by boils or the like. 1584 Calderwood IV. 168.
I thought I saw … the doores of sindrie houses open and dead persons in them, some of byles, some of plowkes 1590-1 R. Bruce Serm. 164.
The kind of the disease … was a pestilentious boil … striking out in many heads or in many plukes 1581-1623 James VI Poems I. 160/891.
Plouks, shirres and atrie phlegmons 1600-1610 Melvill 64.
The twa men war verie read and tead-lyk faced for ploukes and lumpes c1615 Chron. Kings 107.
Ane drink off wynum … brak out on him in quhyt pluikiscomb. a1605 Montg. Flyt. 338 (T).
The pluirasie the pluckeuill

3. A small protuberance near the rim or mouth of a vessel, marking the level to which it must be filled to contain a specified measure.Also attrib.Cf. Pluking vbl. n.² 1573–4 Edinb. B. Rec. IV. .
That euery mesour haue … within the lyp ane plouk tua inche beneth the samyn 1576 Orkney Oppress. 53.
Quhilk can suld … be markit with ane plowk on ilk syde … under the mouth thairoff: quhilk plowkis is the just messor of the can that the ulie suld be fild to … and quhen thai fill it … it suld stand upon ane just ewin erd and fild quhill the plowkis swome equalie and na hiear 1599 Stirling B. Rec. I. 93.
That the pluik be benethe the mouth of ilk stoup as followis 1686 Mackenzie Observ. (1687) 120.
By our custom there is a plouck in every jugg or stoup and the wine is only measured to the mark or plouck but ale and strong waters are measur'd to the topattrib. 1684 Symson Descr. Galloway 99.
They disagree about the measure of the pint: the town alledging that it should be jugg measure and some of the countrey alledging that it should be only pluck measure