"suicide cable" meaning in English

See suicide cable in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: suicide cables [plural]
Etymology: So called because when one end is plugged into a live outlet, the exposed prongs of the other end are highly dangerous. Head templates: {{en-noun}} suicide cable (plural suicide cables)
  1. (informal, electrical work) A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one. Tags: informal Categories (topical): Electricity Synonyms: suicide cord, male-to-male cable, male-to-male cord, widowmaker

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for suicide cable meaning in English (3.2kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "So called because when one end is plugged into a live outlet, the exposed prongs of the other end are highly dangerous.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "suicide cables",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "suicide cable (plural suicide cables)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Electricity",
          "orig": "en:Electricity",
          "parents": [
            "Electromagnetism",
            "Physics",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When the hurricane hit and I lost power, I fired up the generator and jacked it in to the outlet in my garage with a suicide cable; at least I was able to run a few lights and my refrigerator."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 June 19, Philip Lewis, “Dedicated outlets for generator?”, in alt.home.repair (Usenet)",
          "text": "I did the same thing as you, except I ran one suicide cable from the genset to the house, then because the genset is only 120v, I ran another suicide cable from phase to phase to get 120v throughout the house.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 May 29, Cydrome Leader, “re: surge protectors”, in sci.electronics.repair (Usenet)",
          "text": "Measure the voltage drop when it's on. Break out the suicide cables and test that same device using line to ground. Depending on how your place is wired, you may find that under an actual load, your ground is really awful.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 February 25, Sylvia Else, “Not earthing a generator”, in aus.electronics (Usenet)",
          "text": "No, I'm not. That would only make sense if the grid power were persistently unreliable, which it isn't. Nor am I using a suicide cable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one."
      ],
      "id": "en-suicide_cable-en-noun-nrOZdXtd",
      "links": [
        [
          "electrical",
          "electrical"
        ],
        [
          "cord",
          "cord"
        ],
        [
          "prongs",
          "prongs"
        ],
        [
          "outlet",
          "outlet"
        ],
        [
          "generator",
          "generator"
        ],
        [
          "inject",
          "inject"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "electrical work",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, electrical work) A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "suicide cord"
        },
        {
          "word": "male-to-male cable"
        },
        {
          "word": "male-to-male cord"
        },
        {
          "word": "widowmaker"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "suicide cable"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "So called because when one end is plugged into a live outlet, the exposed prongs of the other end are highly dangerous.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "suicide cables",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "suicide cable (plural suicide cables)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Electricity"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When the hurricane hit and I lost power, I fired up the generator and jacked it in to the outlet in my garage with a suicide cable; at least I was able to run a few lights and my refrigerator."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 June 19, Philip Lewis, “Dedicated outlets for generator?”, in alt.home.repair (Usenet)",
          "text": "I did the same thing as you, except I ran one suicide cable from the genset to the house, then because the genset is only 120v, I ran another suicide cable from phase to phase to get 120v throughout the house.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 May 29, Cydrome Leader, “re: surge protectors”, in sci.electronics.repair (Usenet)",
          "text": "Measure the voltage drop when it's on. Break out the suicide cables and test that same device using line to ground. Depending on how your place is wired, you may find that under an actual load, your ground is really awful.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 February 25, Sylvia Else, “Not earthing a generator”, in aus.electronics (Usenet)",
          "text": "No, I'm not. That would only make sense if the grid power were persistently unreliable, which it isn't. Nor am I using a suicide cable.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "electrical",
          "electrical"
        ],
        [
          "cord",
          "cord"
        ],
        [
          "prongs",
          "prongs"
        ],
        [
          "outlet",
          "outlet"
        ],
        [
          "generator",
          "generator"
        ],
        [
          "inject",
          "inject"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "electrical work",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, electrical work) A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "suicide cord"
    },
    {
      "word": "male-to-male cable"
    },
    {
      "word": "male-to-male cord"
    },
    {
      "word": "widowmaker"
    }
  ],
  "word": "suicide cable"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 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.

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