plucking up
Mustering one's nerve
Plucking up means summoning or gathering, almost always courage or nerve: She finally plucked up the courage to ask for a raise.
The image is of reaching down inside yourself and pulling something up—finding resolve you weren't sure you had.
The phrase appears most often as pluck up the courage or pluck up the nerve.
- pluckinessScrappy bravery
- uprootingExtracting from the earth
- digging upExtracting from earth
- pullingForce toward oneself
- extractingPulling out from within
pulling up roots · bravery · removing · audacity · dislodging · yanking · fortitude · unearthing · tenacity · perseverance · grit · harvesting · detaching · boldness · mustering · steeling · taking heart · confidence
courage/boldness
plucking uplosing nerve
backing down · chickening out · giving up · cowering · shrinking back
physical extraction
plucking upplanting
Placing seeds in earth
putting down · inserting · embedding · setting in · rooting