plug

To stop with a plug; to make tight by stopping a hole.

Noun

  1. A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
    • I pushed the plug back into the electrical socket and the lamp began to glow again.

    1. (loosely) An electric socket: wall plug.

  2. Any piece of wood, metal, or other substance used to stop or fill a hole.
    • Pull the plug out of the tub so it can drain.

    Synonyms: bung dowel stopper stopple

  3. A flat oblong cake of pressed tobacco.
    • He preferred a plug of tobacco to loose chaw.
  4. A high, tapering silk hat.
  5. A worthless horse.
    • That sorry old plug is ready for the glue factory!

    Synonyms: bum dobbin hack jade nag

  6. Any worn-out or useless article.
  7. A book that fails to sell.
    • Stack all new and fresh, composed of the fast-selling standard books only — no old plugs or unsalable books whatever. - 1886, The Publishers Weekly, volume 29, page 25:
    • Many New York booksellers promoted the impression that Quaritch had sent only 'plugs' (i.e. unsaleable books). - 1997, The Book Collector, volume 46, page 184:
  8. A block of wood let into a wall to afford a hold for nails.
  9. 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.
    • During the interview, the author put in a plug for his latest novel.
    • She used her televised tour of the zoo to work in another plug for conservation.
    • I just wanted to […] give a plug to Disney World […] - 1956 November 11, 22:37 from the start, in Franklin Heller, director, What's My Line?, season 8, episode 11, spoken by Bennett Cerf:
  10. A body of once molten rock that hardened in a volcanic vent. Usually round or oval in shape.
    • Pressure built beneath the plug in the caldera, eventually resulting in a catastrophic explosion of pyroclastic shrapnel and ash.
  11. A type of lure consisting of a rigid, buoyant or semi-buoyant body and one or more hooks.
    • The fisherman cast the plug into a likely pool, hoping to catch a whopper.
  12. A small seedling grown in a tray from expanded polystyrene or polythene filled usually with a peat or compost substrate.

Origin

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”).

Forms

plugs

Synonyms

block peg pin plug stopper stopple

Hyponyms

cap tap

Related

bunghole lid outlet plughole

Derived

anal plug banana plug bathplug breech plug bridge plug butt plug butt-plug carom plug chair plug core plug door plug drain plug drainplug dust plug earplug epithelial plug Europlug fireplug fuckplug fuse plug glow plug hair plug hawse plug hawse-plug

Verb

  1. To stop with a plug; to make tight by stopping a hole.
    • He attempted to plug the leaks with some caulk.

    Synonyms: stop

  2. To promote (something, especially a product or service); to mention (something) as if promoting or advertising it.
    • The main guest on the show just kept plugging his latest movie: it got so tiresome.
    • Kennedy went on nationwide speaking tour to plug environmental conservation.
    • He [Mike Skinner] treats the gig as an opportunity repeatedly to plug the after-party, where he will be DJing. - 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great...
  3. To persist or continue with something.
    • Near-synonym: plug away
    • Keep plugging at the problem until you find a solution.

    Synonyms: plug away

  4. To shoot (someone) with a bullet.
    • 1884, H. Rider Haggard, The Witch's Head I am awfully glad that you kept your nerve and plugged him; it would have been better if you could have nailed him through the right shoulder, which would not have killed him...

    Synonyms: cap pop

  5. To have sex with; to penetrate sexually.
    • Near-synonyms: peg, rail
    • I’d love to plug him with my strap-on.

    Synonyms: peg rail

  6. To ingest a drug rectally.

    Synonyms: boof

Forms

plugs plugging plugged

Synonyms

keep up soldier on bust a cap pop ventilate drill pound sleep with 🔌

Derived

misplug plug and chug plug and play plug and pray plug away pluggability pluggable plugger plug in plug into plug out plug the runner plug up replug unplug