pull out all the stops

English

Etymology

An allusion to organ stops, which are pulled out to turn on each set of sounds in a pipe organ. When all stops are pulled out, the organ will play all variations of its sounds at once, therefore being as loud as possible.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Audio (General American):

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Verb

pull out all the stops (third-person singular simple present pulls out all the stops, present participle pulling out all the stops, simple past and past participle pulled out all the stops)

1. (idiomatic) To reserve or hold back nothing.

   They pulled out all the stops for the gala wedding.

   • 2024 January 24, Peter Plisner, “Rising to the University challenge”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 61:

     Despite missing the target to open for the Commonwealth Games, work on site hasn't slowed down. VolkerFitzpatrick and its contractors have pulled out all the stops to get the job done.

Synonyms

• (reserve nothing): empty the tank, give one's all, go all out, go the whole nine yards, go up to eleven, go balls to the wall, open the floodgates

Translations

reserve nothing

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: alle registers opentrekken Finnish: tehdä kaikkensa, poistaa esteet French: faire l'impossible; (with respect to a meal) mettre les petits plats dans les grands (fr) German: alle Register ziehen (de) Italian: fare l'impossibile Polish: dawać z siebie wszystko impf, dać z siebie wszystko pf, nie powstrzymywać się impf, nie powstrzymać się pf Portuguese: fazer o impossível Spanish: poner toda la carne en el asador, asestar toda la artillería (es), poner toda la artillería (es), hacer los imposibles (es)