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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PLOUK, n.¹, v.¹ Also plouck, plook, pluk(e), pleuk, pluik, pluck; ploog (Cai. 1903 E.D.D.), plug; peuk. [pluk]

I. n. 1. A pustule, pimple (n. and s.Sc. 1808 Jam., pluke, plouk; Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), 1914 Angus Gl., pluk; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 259; Rxb. 1942 Zai). Gen.Sc. and in n.Eng. dial. Also fig. Hence plouky, plooky, plukie, †plucky, adj., covered with pimples, spotty (Bwk. 1942 Wettstein). Gen.Sc.; plookiness, n., a pimply condition (Sc. 1825 Jam.). Combs. pluke-faced, plukey-faced, pimply-faced; whisky plouk, see Whisky.Sc. 1761 Caled. Mercury (21 March):
Allan Cameron, . . . fair complexion . . . full faced and a little plucky.Edb. 1772 Edb. Ev. Courant (12 Aug.):
Her face somewhat foul, and small plooks about the brow.Kcb. 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 72:
There was pluke-faced Willie Kell.Sc. 1802 Sir Aldingar in Child Ballads No. 59 B. xiv.:
Plooky, plooky are your cheeks, And plooky is your chin.Sc. 1827 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1863) I. 280:
I fear the plook o' war 'll no come to a head.Kcd. 1857 Stonehaven Jnl. (21 May) 4:
He ne'er was fashed wi' cankert plook On nose or broo.Ayr. 1887 J. Service Dr. Duguid 259:
At length the plook of his spite cam to a head.Ags. 1892 Arbroath Guide (13 Feb.) 4:
Jock's luckless feature was his nose . . . Wi' plooks set roond like curran' berries.Abd. a.1900 H. Beaton Benachie (1923) 205:
Peuky-faced, copper-nosed, light-footed, giddy-headed.Ayr. 1928 J. Carruthers Man Beset i. i.:
Called him “a plook-faced moudiewart”.Bch. 1930:
Od, but aw'm unco baddert wi' a peuk i' the howe o' ma neck.Gsw. 1979 Farquhar McLay in Moira Burgess and Hamish Whyte Streets of Stone (1985) 114:
Aldo the baker's boy that had the plookie face was second-in-command. Too much cream of tartar brought his face out. wm.Sc. 1985 Liz Lochhead Tartuffe 21:
The Big Aristocrat - in his ain back-yerd.
Wi' his rid, plooky grunzie - is he no quite it! Gsw. 1987 James Kelman Greyhound for Breakfast (1988) 141:
What was he on about with that stupid big plook on the side of his neck, he had a cheek to even speak. Gsw. 1987 Matt McGinn McGinn of the Calton 30:
This complex was in no way eased when with puberty arrived acne, and did I have acne. My face, chest, arms and back were covered in boils and plukes at which I scrubbed and over which I poured eau-de-cologne and Valderma all to no avail. m.Sc. 1989 James Meek McFarlane Boils the Sea 139:
He should be gone, a dwindling dot on the horizon, a pluke squeezing himself out into oblivion. Edb. 1989 Gordon Legge The Shoe 137:
'The puddle-sitter,' continued Mental, 'or acne-arse as you christened her.' 'It's true,' said Kelly, hand over the mouth again. 'I met her at the baths once. And afterwards I seen her bum. It was absolutely covered in plooks, millions of them! I'm sure it was all the time she spent in a puddle.' Per. 1990 Betsy Whyte Red Rowans and Wild Honey (1991) 22:
'Are you mad, you carotty-headed, plukie-faced creature? To think that I would do such a thing! ... ' Edb. 1991 Gordon Legge In Between Talking about the Football 58:
There's a factory somewhere produce 'interesting' wee lassies with their small tits, squint noses, plukey foreheads and always asking questions - I should take out shares really. wm.Sc. 1991 Liz Lochhead Bagpipe Muzak 4:
Yet fur this dubious prize I'd have scratched oot their eyes
And hoped they'd git plooks, so I'd win! Edb. 1993 Irvine Welsh Trainspotting (1994) 5:
Fuck off ya plukey-faced wee hing oot. Git a fuckin ride! Sick boy snarled as we piled intae the taxi. Dundee 1996 Matthew Fitt Pure Radge 3:
thai twa spekky guys
wi the national healthers
an guitars owre thair shooders
an plooks aa owre thair puses. Sc. 2004 Edinburgh Evening News 16 Mar :
Apparently, you are supposed to take your make up off before you apply the wondrously greasy stuff. I came out in plukes, which, whilst being a pain in the visage, only served to make me feel like an adolescent once more.

2. A knob, protuberance, excrescence in gen. (Sc. 1825 Jam.), hence ploukie, plooky, studded with knobs (Cld. 1825 Jam.); specif. applied to a small knob or pin formerly set on the inside surface of a vessel some distance below the rim to indicate standard measure (see 1779 quot.) as in taverns (Sc. 1825 Jam.). Comb. plouk-measure, measure or capacity as shown by the plouk. Also in proverbial phr. as in 1826 quot. (Rxb. a.1860 J. Younger Autobiog. (1881) 392, plug).Gall. 1692 A. Symson Descr. Gall. (1823) 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.Sc. 1779 J. Swinton Weights &c. 86:
A pewter pint-jug, marked 1652, kept at Inverness, is the standard of the measures of capacity. It has on the inside, a plouk or knob; and a little above the plouk a hole drilled through, which is stopped up when they want to fill the jug to the brim. The jug, filled to the plouk, regulates the firlot for Wheat, Pease, Rye, and Meal.Ayr. 1826 Galt Last of Lairds xviii.:
A' might be pushon that's aboun the plook wi' them . . . Scotch pint-stoups, before the reformation of the imperial measure were made to hold something more than the standard quantity, but at the point of the true measure a small papilla or plook projected, the space between which and the brim was left for an ad libitum, an exercise of liberality on the part of vintners and other ministers to haustation. When however measure was regulated by the scrimp rule, it was said proverbially of those who did so, “that of their liquors all was poison abune the plook.”Sc. 1950 Ideal Home (March) 66:
To test whether a Tappit Hen is genuine, put the fingers a little way inside the neck, and there should be a small pimple in the metal called the “plouk” or “plouck,” which was the full measure mark.Ags. 1988 Raymond Vettese The Richt Noise 84:
I did find, tho, in a lump o chalk,
a sea-urchin's fossil. I've it yet,
hauf-roonded as a pipper-wecht,
star-gnarlt wi stane plooks
like a hedgehog wi a haircut.

3. A pointed rock or stone (Sh. 1966); an area of rough rocks on the sea-bottom.Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928):
A pluk o' grund; de line “bor at” in a pluk and was “made op”, the line chanced to stick fast to a rough piece of sea-bottom and was broken.

II. v. Only as ppl.adj. plookit, 1. covered with pimples, spotty. Gen.Sc.Per. 1857 J. Stewart Sketches 132:
Drunkards and sots Wi' their red plookit noses.

2. Of a drinking vessel or the like: having a plook or knob.Sc. 1710 R. Wodrow Analecta (M.C.) I. 333:
It was a litle round plucked glasse.