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plug

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: pług

English

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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”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: plŭg, IPA(key): /plʌɡ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌɡ

Noun

plug (plural plugs)

  2. (electricity) 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.
  3. Any piece of wood, metal, or other substance used to stop or fill a hole.
    Synonyms: bung, dowel, stopper, stopple
    Pull the plug out of the tub so it can drain.
  4. (US) A flat oblong cake of pressed tobacco.
    He preferred a plug of tobacco to loose chaw.
  5. (US, slang) A high, tapering silk hat.
  6. (US, slang) A worthless horse.
    Synonyms: (racing) bum, dobbin, hack, jade, nag
    That sorry old plug is ready for the glue factory!
  7. (dated) Any worn-out or useless article.
  8. (dated, slang) A book that fails to sell.
    • 1886, The Publishers Weekly, volume 29, page 25:
      Stack all new and fresh, composed of the fast-selling standard books only — no old plugs or unsalable books whatever.
    • 1997, The Book Collector, volume 46, page 184:
      Many New York booksellers promoted the impression that Quaritch had sent only 'plugs' (i.e. unsaleable books).
  9. (construction) A block of wood let into a wall to afford a hold for nails.
  10. (slang) 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.
    • 1973 December 8, A. Nolder Gay, “Coping With Christmas”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 25, page 3:
      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 […]
  11. (geology) 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.
  12. (fishing) 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.
  13. (horticulture) A small seedling grown in a tray from expanded polystyrene or polythene filled usually with a peat or compost substrate.
  14. A growth of protoplasm that closes the pore openings in the cells of certain algae.
  15. (jewelry) A short cylindrical piece of jewellery commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings, especially in the ear.
    Synonym: earspool
    Hyponym: earflare (Ancient Maya)
  16. (slang) A drug dealer.
    • 2017, Gucci Mane, Neil Martinez-Belkin, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, page 32:
      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 […]
  17. A branch from a water-pipe to supply a hose.
  18. (aviation) A standard, modular fuselage component that can be added or removed.
    • 2010, Ajoy Kumar Kundu, Aircraft Design, page 165:
      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.
  19. Ellipsis of fireplug (“fire hydrant”).

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Gulf Arabic: بلاك (blāk)
  • → Burmese: ပလတ် (pa.lat)
  • → Japanese: プラグ (puragu)

Translations

Verb

plug (third-person singular simple present plugs, present participle plugging, simple past and past participle plugged)

  2. (transitive) To stop with a plug; to make tight by stopping a hole.
    He attempted to plug the leaks with some caulk.
    Synonym: stop
  4. (transitive) 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.
  6. (intransitive, informal) To persist or continue with something.
    Near-synonym: plug away
    Keep plugging at the problem until you find a solution.
  8. (transitive, slang) To shoot (someone) with a bullet.
    Synonyms: cap, pop
    • 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...
  10. (transitive, slang) To have sex with; to penetrate sexually.
    Near-synonyms: peg, rail
    I’d love to plug him with my strap-on.
  11. (transitive, slang) To ingest a drug rectally.
    Synonym: boof

Synonyms

Derived terms

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