cull vs pluck

cull

verb
  • To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group). 

  • To select animals from a group and then kill them in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner. 

  • To kill (animals etc). 

  • To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of. 

  • To gather, collect. 

noun
  • A lobster having only one claw. 

  • A selection. 

  • An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded. 

  • A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen. 

  • An organised killing of selected animals. 

  • A fool, gullible person; a dupe. 

pluck

verb
  • To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation. 

  • To pull something sharply; to pull something out 

  • To pull or twitch sharply. 

  • To remove feathers from a bird. 

  • To play a string instrument pizzicato. 

  • To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc. 

  • Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing. 

noun
  • Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence. 

  • The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals. 

  • An instance of plucking or pulling sharply. 

  • Cheap wine. 

How often have the words cull and pluck occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )