What's the difference between courage and plucky?

Courage


Definition:

  • (n.) The heart; spirit; temper; disposition.
  • (n.) Heart; inclination; desire; will.
  • (n.) That quality of mind which enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without fear, or fainting of heart; valor; boldness; resolution.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I know I have the courage to deal with all the sniping but you worry about the effects on your family."
  • (2) It also devalues the courage of real whistleblowers who have used proper channels to hold our government accountable.” McCain added: “It is a sad, yet perhaps fitting commentary on President Obama’s failed national security policies that he would commute the sentence of an individual that endangered the lives of American troops, diplomats, and intelligence sources by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, a virulently anti-American organisation that was a tool of Russia’s recent interference in our elections.” WikiLeaks last year published emails hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign.
  • (3) He made me laugh and cry, and his courage in writing about what he was going through was sometimes quite overwhelming.
  • (4) Gin was popularised in the UK via British troops who were given the spirit as “Dutch courage” during the 30 years’ war.
  • (5) This was a courageous move in a society where women were confined to purdah.
  • (6) The woman said it took her until the mid-1990s to pluck up the courage to report the abuse to Jersey's children's services department – and that her allegations were not taken seriously enough.
  • (7) My hope is that those who are at the Games take these words and let them echo, with grace, courage and dignity, in whatever way they choose to, because it will make a difference to those participating, and to those watching.
  • (8) After Japanese troops invaded the Chinese city of Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1937, slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians, Hirohito said he was "deeply satisfied" by the troops' courage in quickly seizing the city.
  • (9) And with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and just wages.
  • (10) Honest journalism and the courageous whistleblowers who denounce human rights violations or attempts against state sovereignty deserve to be protected.
  • (11) These inspiring and courageous women are up against a highly resourced state that looks after its own.
  • (12) Congratulating Mr Rabin and Mr Arafat on having the courage to change, a Clintonite speciality, he went on: 'Above all, let us dedicate ourselves to your region's next generation.
  • (13) Alicia deserves praise for courageously standing up to Trump’s attacks.
  • (14) In the Russian gallery, for example, the courageous Vadim Zakharov presents a pointed version of the Danaë myth in which an insouciant dictator (of whom it is hard not to think: Putin) sits on a high beam on a saddle, shelling nuts all day while gold coins rain down from a vast shower-head only to be hoisted in buckets by faceless thuggish men in suits.
  • (15) They’re losing fear and they’re gaining courage, especially from the military positions he’s taken.
  • (16) They had announced Thursday that "as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."
  • (17) Essential traits of this personality are an independent mind capable of liberating itself from dogmatic tenets universally accepted by the scientific community; the capacity and courage to look at things from a new angle; powers of combination, intuition and imagination; feu sacré and perseverance--in short, intellectual as well as moral qualities.
  • (18) Cubism as practised by Picasso and Braque they thought courageous, up to a point, but misguided.
  • (19) The doubts over what some see as Miliband's lack of presentational skills and "wonkiness" have, in part, been stilled by his flashes of courage and intuitive accord with the public mood – on Libor, on predatory capitalism, on Murdoch.
  • (20) It cannot be right that anyone who has found the courage to escape their abusive or violent partner should be subjected to the stress and torment of being confronted and interrogated by them in any court.” Research by charity Women’s Aid suggests a quarter of women in family court proceedings have been cross-examined by an abusive former partner.

Plucky


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having pluck or courage; characterized by pluck; displaying pluck; courageous; spirited; as, a plucky race.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When asked why the streets of London were not heaving with demonstrators protesting against Russia turning Aleppo into the Guernica of our times, Stop the War replied that it had no wish to add to the “jingoism” politicians were whipping up against plucky little Russia .
  • (2) Behind the sedately revolving capsules of the London Eye, plucky local resident George Turner has been holding another gargantuan development machine to account in a David-and-Goliath planning battle that reached the High Court.
  • (3) Whereas England was in retreat, Spain was widely admired as a nation of plucky fighters who had just conquered the Muslim kingdom of Granada.
  • (4) Despite its environmental projects and its philanthropic arm, the perception of Google is slowly morphing from plucky David to sinister Goliath.
  • (5) "The BBC are the Germans of this tournament, slick and reliable, and ITV are the plucky Costa Ricans who gave us some great moments even if they don't get to lift the trophy," said Ben Preston, editor of Radio Times.
  • (6) Misguided attempts by well-wishers to literally or metaphorically pat her on the back and praise her "pluckiness" are given short shrift.
  • (7) Indeed, read the “illustrative” examples the DWP provides in the consultation document – a hypothetical 58-year-old woman with osteoarthritis who “uses the sink for support when getting off the toilet, dresses sitting down and wears slip-on shoes for ease” – and it is easy to get the impression that what disabled people need is just a plucky attitude rather than social security.
  • (8) I'm tempted as I think Liverpool might bottle it against Newcastle, Chelsea should see off an awful Cardiff team and even though plucky little City will probably get a drubbing against Big Sam's claret and blue army they'll still finish first.
  • (9) It’s an intentionally ridiculous solution to a ridiculous problem.” Another plucky Dutch designer thinks he can turn the pollution into a lucrative commodity.
  • (10) The country they love no longer exists, except in Ealing comedies – my favourite one of which is Passport to Pimlico (1949), in which plucky Londoners paradoxically demonstrate their Britishness by seceding from the British state.
  • (11) As if to reinforce the image of "plucky Georgia" fighting against the odds, there have been TV images of the Georgian president, wearing a flak jacket, bundled away by his security guards during a visit to Gori as Russian aircraft buzzed overhead.
  • (12) We hear it today at its coarsest when English football fans sing about “ Ten German bombers ” shot down by plucky British fighters, and then chant, “ Fuck off Europe, we’re all voting out .” Not that myth-making is uniquely British.
  • (13) MC PREDICTION: Spain, Croatia, Turkey, Czech Republic GROUP E REP IRELAND Almost a stereotypically plucky team hiding major weaknesses, particularly in goal, but a victory over Germany and a two-leg win against Bosnia shows Martin O’Neill’s side are capable of shocking better sides.
  • (14) May talk about Liverpool, too 9.15am Below the line, Chaval asks: "Sean, I'm of a mind to back the plucky Danish resistance to hang on for a draw against a languid Dutch side today, at odds not too shy of 3-1.
  • (15) Jim Murphy earns respect for his plucky fight to defend a third of seats that might be held, but Labour’s Scots identity crisis runs deep.
  • (16) But she was a real optimist with a plucky attitude.
  • (17) And rather than being the product of a dynamic free market and individual plucky entrepreneurs, their technological success owes everything to the public sector.
  • (18) But for a thrusting young company eager to blow up a traditional market but without anything much in the way of an advertising budget, it seems no controversy – courted or not – that allows you to play the plucky but oppressed newcomer, eager only to get on and do your thing, will do you much harm.
  • (19) Record heights But Setanta, named after a plucky Celtic warrior, leapt into the big league when European competition authorities forced the Premier League to open up the way it sells its rights.
  • (20) My own first encounter with Norfolk in literature came in the form of the heroic and crime-solving adventures of Arthur Ransome's Coot Club , a plucky little gang of boys and girls who live around Horning on the Norfolk Broads, in the Swallows and Amazons series of novels, a world as far from my own upbringing as was imaginable.