plug
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: plŭg
ipa: /plʌɡ/
rhymes: -ʌɡ
Forms: form: plugs
Etymology: From Dutch plug, from Middle Dutch plugge (“peg, plug”), from Old Dutch *pluggi, from Proto-West Germanic *plugi. Further origin unknown. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *plugjaz, but the word seems originally restricted to northern continental West Germanic. Perhaps ultimately from the same source as Dutch plag (“cut-out sod”), itself considered to be from a substrate.
Compare German Low German Plüg, Norwegian plug (“peg, wedge”, probably borrowed from Middle Low German), German Pflock (“peg”, restricted to Central German and phonetically divergent). Possibly akin to Lithuanian plúkti (“to strike, hew”).
Senses: examples: text: I pushed the plug back into the electrical socket and the lamp began to glow again.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
An electric socket: wall plug.
examples: text: Pull the plug out of the tub so it can drain.
synonyms: bung
dowel
stopper
stopple
glosses: Any piece of wood, metal, or other substance used to stop or fill a hole.
examples: text: He preferred a plug of tobacco to loose chaw.
glosses: A flat oblong cake of pressed tobacco.
glosses: A high, tapering silk hat.
examples: text: That sorry old plug is ready for the glue factory!
synonyms: word: bum
topics: racing
sports
hobbies
lifestyle
word: dobbin
word: hack
word: jade
word: nag
glosses: A worthless horse.
glosses: Any worn-out or useless article.
examples: text: Stack all new and fresh, composed of the fast-selling standard books only — no old plugs or unsalable books whatever.
ref: 1886, The Publishers Weekly, volume 29, page 25:
text: Many New York booksellers promoted the impression that Quaritch had sent only 'plugs' (i.e. unsaleable books).
ref: 1997, The Book Collector, volume 46, page 184:
glosses: A book that fails to sell.
topics: business
construction
manufacturing
glosses: A block of wood let into a wall to afford a hold for nails.
examples: text: During the interview, the author put in a plug for his latest novel.
text: She used her televised tour of the zoo to work in another plug for conservation.
text: Department store decorations up before Thanksgiving, Christmas cards all over the place, TV full of plugs for fifty-dollar toys that inner-city kids watching can never expect to receive, parents spending what they can't afford and deluging their kids with the annual orgy of materialist values […]
ref: 1973 December 8, A. Nolder Gay, “Coping With Christmas”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 25, page 3:
glosses: A promotion (act of promoting) of a product (such as a book, film or play) or other thing, concept, etc, for example during an interview or a commercial.
examples: text: Pressure built beneath the plug in the caldera, eventually resulting in a catastrophic explosion of pyroclastic shrapnel and ash.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: A body of once molten rock that hardened in a volcanic vent. Usually round or oval in shape.
examples: text: The fisherman cast the plug into a likely pool, hoping to catch a whopper.
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: A type of lure consisting of a rigid, buoyant or semi-buoyant body and one or more hooks.
topics: agriculture
business
horticulture
lifestyle
glosses: A small seedling grown in a tray from expanded polystyrene or polythene filled usually with a peat or compost substrate.
glosses: A growth of protoplasm that closes the pore openings in the cells of certain algae.
topics: jewelry
lifestyle
synonyms: earspool
glosses: A short cylindrical piece of jewellery commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings, especially in the ear.
examples: text: He saw me catch a trap and leave the house of a drug dealer. That's why he targeted me. He could have easily blown my ass off right then and there for lying, but for some reason he didn't. He just left. I biked back to my plug's spot and told him […]
ref: 2017, Gucci Mane, Neil Martinez-Belkin, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, page 32:
glosses: A drug dealer.
glosses: A branch from a water-pipe to supply a hose.
examples: text: Add front and aft closures to the fuselage midsection. Addition or subtraction of fuselage plugs, to a maximum of five rows, conveniently distributed on each side of wing, is possible.
ref: 2010, Ajoy Kumar Kundu, Aircraft Design, page 165:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A standard, modular fuselage component that can be added or removed.
glosses: Ellipsis of fireplug (“fire hydrant”).
Synonyms: word: block
word: peg
word: pin
word: plug
word: stopper
word: stopple
Hyponyms: word: cap
word: tap
Derived terms: banana plug
bathplug
breech plug
bridge plug
butt plug
butt-plug
carom plug
chair plug
core plug
door plug
drainplug
drain plug
dust plug
earplug
epithelial plug
Europlug
fireplug
fuckplug
fuse plug
glow plug
hair plug
hawse-plug
hawse plug
hotplug
jack plug
Jones plug
lip plug
miniplug
mud plug
multiplug
noseplug
not worth a plug nickel
plug and feather
plugback
plug bayonet
plugboard
plug centerbit
plug compatible
plug cut
plug door
plugfest
pluggery
plug hat
plughole
plugless
pluglike
plug nickel
plugola
plugpoint
plug rod
plug tap
plug-ugly
plug valve
plugworthy
pulling the plug
pull the plug
punctal plug
put the plug in the jug
rawl plug
safety plug
scupper plug
smart plug
sparking plug
spark plug
spoonplug
tail plug
tunnel plug
wall plug
washout plug
welch plug
yolk plug
Related terms: word: bunghole
word: lid
word: outlet
word: plughole