pull
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: po͝ol
ipa: /pʊl/
ipa: /pəl/
ipa: /pʉl/
note: full–fool merger
ipa: /puːl/
homophone: pool
homophone: pole
homophone: Pole
homophone: poll
rhymes: -ʊl (accents with foot–goose merger or full–fool merger)
Forms: form: pulls
Etymology: Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”), of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).
Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).
Senses: examples: text: He gave the hair a sharp pull and it came out.
text: She took several pulls on her cigarette.
text: I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
glosses: An act of pulling (applying force toward oneself).
examples: text: The spaceship came under the pull of the gas giant.
text: iron fillings drawn by the pull of a magnet
glosses: An attractive force which causes motion towards the source.
examples: text: The hypnotist exerted a pull over his patients.
text: Tresham's up to his eyes in dock business and town business, a regular jobmonger, he has no use for anybody who hasn't a pull.
ref: 1944, Henry Christopher Bailey, The Queen of Spades, page 72:
glosses: An advantage over somebody; a means of influencing.
examples: text: I don't have a lot of pull within the company.
text: She wants to work in the villages, and she has a lot of pull with some ministers and there she is, like a political supervisor.
ref: 2016, Antoinette Burton, quoting Shukdev Sharma, Africa in the Indian Imagination, Duke University Press, →ISBN:
text: I have already put Matthew Williams off for a few days. He wants to see her too, but he doesn't have pull with the director.
ref: 2017, Maggie Blake, Her Haunted Past, Book Venture Publishing LLC, →ISBN, page 126:
text: If Netflix truly cared about those of us sequestered to our homes, with our shelves of beans and bad-news-addled brains, it would release either a new season of Queer Eye or another season of the similarly soothing Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat to help us bide our time. Alas, I have no pull at Netflix, and neither seems to be coming soon.
ref: 2020 March 27, Bettina Makalintal, “Samin Nosrat's 'Home Cooking' Podcast Will Make Your Quarantine Cooking Better”, in VICE, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2022:
glosses: The power to influence someone or something; sway, clout.
examples: text: a zipper pull
glosses: Any device meant to be pulled, as a lever, knob, handle, or rope.
examples: text: card pull
glosses: A randomized selection from a given set.
examples: text: mythical FYP pull
glosses: A randomized selection from a given set.
A high-quality or funny recommendation by the algorithm.
glosses: A randomized selection from a given set.
A player's use of a game's gacha mechanic to obtain a random reward.
qualifier: gacha games
examples: text: In weights the favourite had the pull.
glosses: Something in one's favour in a comparison or a contest; advantage.
examples: text: the pull of a movie star
glosses: Appeal or attraction.
examples: text: server pull
text: pull technology
glosses: The act or process of sending out a request for data from a server by a client.
examples: 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V
As Blunt had said, the burning ship lay a good twelve miles from the Malabar, and the pull was a long and a weary one. Once fairly away from the protecting sides of the vessel that had borne them thus far on their dismal journey, the adventurers seemed to have come into a new atmosphere.
glosses: A journey made by rowing.
examples: text: a wrestling pull
text: this wrastling pull betweene Corineus and Gogmagog, is reported to have befallen at Douer.
ref: 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A contest; a struggle.
examples: text: They used steroids to build strength but, more importantly, to recover from strains, pulls, dislocations.
ref: 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 162:
glosses: An injury resulting from a forceful pull on a limb, etc.; strain; sprain.
examples: text: Two pulls at once; / His lady banished, and a limb lopped off.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
glosses: Loss, misfortune, or violence suffered.
examples: text: Heah, Sam Johnsing, jis' take a pull at dis bottle, an' it will make yo' feel better.
ref: 1882, H. Elliott McBride, Well Fixed for a Rainy Day:
text: However, both gentlemen were clearly of one mind over the quality of the wine, for they each took a prolonged pull, smacked their lips, and looked hard at each other, as though in silent communion over the excellence of the vintage.
ref: 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 9:
text: Sutho took a pull at his Johnny Walker and Coke and laughed that trademark laugh of his and said: `Okay. I'll pay that all right.'
ref: 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 294:
glosses: A drink, especially of an alcoholic beverage; a mouthful or swig of a drink.
examples: text: The pull is not a legitimate stroke, but bad cricket.
ref: 1887, R. A. Proctor, Longman's Magazine:
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A type of stroke by which a leg ball is sent to the off side, or an off ball to the on side; a pull shot.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A mishit shot which travels in a straight line and (for a right-handed player) left of the intended path.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: A single impression from a handpress.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: A proof sheet.
Synonyms: sense: act of pulling
word: tug
sense: act of pulling
word: yank
sense: attractive force
word: attraction
sense: device meant to be pulled
word: handle
sense: device meant to be pulled
word: knob
sense: device meant to be pulled
word: lever
sense: device meant to be pulled
word: rope
sense: influence
word: influence
sense: influence
word: sway
sense: a puff on a cigarette
word: drag
sense: a puff on a cigarette
english: marijuana cigarette
translation: marijuana cigarette
word: toke
Derived terms: ass pull
ass-pull
beer pull
bell-pull
bench pull
cheese pull
crow to pull
demand-pull inflation
gravity's pull
have the world by the tail on a downhill pull
oil pull
on the pull
platter pull
pom-pom-pull-away
pull buoy
pull cord
pulldown
pull-down
pull effect
pull factor
pull-focus
pull list
pullout
pull-out
pull quote
pull request
push-pull amplifier
ring-pull
ring pull
rug-pull
rug pull
short pull
slab pull
straight pull
system pull
take a pull
tractor pull
trash pull