"pull the plug" meaning in English

See pull the plug in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-pull the plug.ogg [Australia] Forms: pulls the plug [present, singular, third-person], pulling the plug [participle, present], pulled the plug [participle, past], pulled the plug [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=pull the plug}} pull the plug (third-person singular simple present pulls the plug, present participle pulling the plug, simple past and past participle pulled the plug)
  1. (intransitive) To unplug or cut power to a machine. Tags: intransitive Translations (unplug, cut power — see also unplug): ᎫᏓᎴᎠ (gudalea) (Cherokee), trække stikket (Danish), katkaista virta (Finnish), den Stecker ziehen (German), 플러그를 뽑다 (peulleogeureul ppopda) (Korean), koti (Maori), trekke ut proppen (Norwegian Bokmål), trekke ut kontakten (Norwegian Bokmål), scoate din priză (Romanian), tynnu plwg (Welsh)
    Sense id: en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-~37S-Uce Disambiguation of 'unplug, cut power — see also unplug': 70 23 3 3
  2. (intransitive, informal) To turn off life support. Tags: informal, intransitive Categories (topical): Death
    Sense id: en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-G-1xUB~x Disambiguation of Death: 0 66 34 0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English predicates, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 15 42 21 22 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 7 71 11 11 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 7 70 11 11 Disambiguation of English predicates: 18 38 21 22 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 7 70 11 11
  3. (informal, transitive with on) To cease to support; to halt. Tags: informal, transitive, with-on Translations (cease to support, halt): lakkauttaa (Finnish), lopettaa (Finnish), débrancher la prise (French), den Garaus machen (German), den Stecker ziehen (German), staccare la spina (Italian), trekke ut kontakten (Norwegian Bokmål), przestawać wspierać [imperfective] (Polish), przestać wspierać [perfective] (Polish), zatrzymywać [imperfective] (Polish), zatrzymać [perfective] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-d2eYEUKg Disambiguation of 'cease to support, halt': 1 12 71 16
  4. (intransitive, informal) To cease production or publication. Tags: informal, intransitive
    Sense id: en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-P1gP1tKw

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for pull the plug meaning in English (6.7kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pulls the plug",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulling the plug",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled the plug",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled the plug",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "pull the plug"
      },
      "expansion": "pull the plug (third-person singular simple present pulls the plug, present participle pulling the plug, simple past and past participle pulled the plug)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Shut off the machine and pull the plug.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "He put an end to the loud music by pulling the plug.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To unplug or cut power to a machine."
      ],
      "id": "en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-~37S-Uce",
      "links": [
        [
          "unplug",
          "unplug"
        ],
        [
          "power",
          "power"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To unplug or cut power to a machine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "chr",
          "lang": "Cherokee",
          "roman": "gudalea",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "ᎫᏓᎴᎠ"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "trække stikket"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "katkaista virta"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "den Stecker ziehen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "ko",
          "lang": "Korean",
          "roman": "peulleogeureul ppopda",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "플러그를 뽑다"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "koti"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "trekke ut proppen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "trekke ut kontakten"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "scoate din priză"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "70 23 3 3",
          "code": "cy",
          "lang": "Welsh",
          "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
          "word": "tynnu plwg"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "15 42 21 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 71 11 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 70 11 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 38 21 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 70 11 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 66 34 0",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [
            "Body",
            "Life",
            "Human",
            "Nature",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To turn off life support."
      ],
      "id": "en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-G-1xUB~x",
      "links": [
        [
          "life support",
          "life support"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, informal) To turn off life support."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It's a wonder the director didn't pull the plug on that project months ago.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 July 15, Mike Brown talks to Paul Clifton, “Leading London's \"hidden heroes\"”, in Rail, pages 42–43",
          "text": "\"We have a deal that stopped me pulling the plug on services. But only just. I was hours from having to stop the Underground and buses from running in this, the greatest city on Earth. How insane is that? How could that even be allowed to happen?\n\"I waited until five to midnight on the day when I would have had to pull the plug for the next day, before I got the letter from the Government on an interim funding settlement.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cease to support; to halt."
      ],
      "id": "en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-d2eYEUKg",
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "support",
          "support"
        ],
        [
          "halt",
          "halt"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, transitive with on) To cease to support; to halt."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "transitive",
        "with-on"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "lakkauttaa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "lopettaa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "débrancher la prise"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "den Garaus machen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "den Stecker ziehen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "staccare la spina"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "word": "trekke ut kontakten"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "przestawać wspierać"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "przestać wspierać"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "zatrzymywać"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "1 12 71 16",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "cease to support, halt",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "zatrzymać"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To cease production or publication."
      ],
      "id": "en-pull_the_plug-en-verb-P1gP1tKw",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, informal) To cease production or publication."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pull the plug.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/En-au-pull_the_plug.ogg/En-au-pull_the_plug.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/En-au-pull_the_plug.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pull the plug"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English predicates",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English terms with redundant head parameter",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Death"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pulls the plug",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulling the plug",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled the plug",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled the plug",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "pull the plug"
      },
      "expansion": "pull the plug (third-person singular simple present pulls the plug, present participle pulling the plug, simple past and past participle pulled the plug)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Shut off the machine and pull the plug.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "He put an end to the loud music by pulling the plug.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To unplug or cut power to a machine."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unplug",
          "unplug"
        ],
        [
          "power",
          "power"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To unplug or cut power to a machine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To turn off life support."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "life support",
          "life support"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, informal) To turn off life support."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It's a wonder the director didn't pull the plug on that project months ago.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 July 15, Mike Brown talks to Paul Clifton, “Leading London's \"hidden heroes\"”, in Rail, pages 42–43",
          "text": "\"We have a deal that stopped me pulling the plug on services. But only just. I was hours from having to stop the Underground and buses from running in this, the greatest city on Earth. How insane is that? How could that even be allowed to happen?\n\"I waited until five to midnight on the day when I would have had to pull the plug for the next day, before I got the letter from the Government on an interim funding settlement.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cease to support; to halt."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "support",
          "support"
        ],
        [
          "halt",
          "halt"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, transitive with on) To cease to support; to halt."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "transitive",
        "with-on"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cease production or publication."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, informal) To cease production or publication."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-pull the plug.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/En-au-pull_the_plug.ogg/En-au-pull_the_plug.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/En-au-pull_the_plug.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "chr",
      "lang": "Cherokee",
      "roman": "gudalea",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "ᎫᏓᎴᎠ"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "trække stikket"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "katkaista virta"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "den Stecker ziehen"
    },
    {
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "peulleogeureul ppopda",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "플러그를 뽑다"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "koti"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "trekke ut proppen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "trekke ut kontakten"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "scoate din priză"
    },
    {
      "code": "cy",
      "lang": "Welsh",
      "sense": "unplug, cut power — see also unplug",
      "word": "tynnu plwg"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "lakkauttaa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "lopettaa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "débrancher la prise"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "den Garaus machen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "den Stecker ziehen"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "staccare la spina"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "word": "trekke ut kontakten"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "przestawać wspierać"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "przestać wspierać"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "zatrzymywać"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "cease to support, halt",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "zatrzymać"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pull the plug"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.