plug

plural plugs

1. businessA 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. broadlybusinessAn 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. UScountableuncountableA flat oblong cake of cured and pressed tobacco; the tobacco that constitutes it.

   He preferred plug to snuff.

   2 more examples

   Near-synonym: chewing tobacco

   He preferred a plug to snuff.

   Synonyms: chewing tobacco

4. USslangA high, tapering silk hat.
5. USslangA worthless horse.

   That sorry old plug is ready for the glue factory!

   Synonyms: bum, dobbin, hack, jade, nag

6. datedAny worn-out or useless article.
7. datedslangA book that fails to sell.

   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

   1 more example

   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

8. businessA block of wood let into a wall to afford a hold for nails.
9. slangA 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.

   3 more examples

   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

   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 […]

   1973 December 8, A. Nolder Gay, “Coping With Christmas”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 25, page 3

10. geographyA 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. fishingA 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. agricultureA small seedling grown in a tray from expanded polystyrene or polythene filled usually with a peat or compost substrate.
13. A growth of protoplasm that closes the pore openings in the cells of certain algae.
14. jewelryA short cylindrical piece of jewellery commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings, especially in the ear.

    Synonyms: earspool

15. slangA drug dealer.

    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 […]

    2017, Gucci Mane, Neil Martinez-Belkin, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane, page 32

16. slangAfrican-American VernacularA trusted connection; someone who provides illicit goods and resources.
17. A branch from a water-pipe to supply a hose.
18. aeronauticsA standard, modular fuselage component that can be added or removed.

    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.

    2010, Ajoy Kumar Kundu, Aircraft Design, page 165

19. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of spark plug.

    I changed the plugs and the coil packs.

20. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of fireplug (“fire hydrant”).

present singular third person plugs · participle present plugging · participle past plugged · past plugged

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

   He attempted to plug the leaks with some caulk.

   Synonyms: stop

2. transitiveTo promote (something, especially a product or service); to mention (something) as if promoting or advertising it.

   Kennedy went on nationwide speaking tour to plug environmental conservation.

   3 more examples

   The main guest on the show just kept plugging his latest movie: it got so tiresome.

   Well, I’m in New York principally to sort of plug a picture, that I happen to have had the good fortune of being in, called Never Wave at a WAC.

   1953 February 15, Paul Douglas, 00:19:21 from the start, in What's My Line?, season 4, episode 24

   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 everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2019

3. informalintransitiveTo persist or continue with something.

   Near-synonym: plug away

   1 more example

   Keep plugging at the problem until you find a solution.

   Synonyms: plug away, keep up

4. slangtransitiveTo 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, bust a cap, pop, ventilate

5. slangtransitiveTo have sex with; to penetrate sexually.

   Near-synonyms: peg, rail

   1 more example

   I’d love to plug him with my strap-on.

   Synonyms: peg, rail, drill

6. slangtransitiveTo ingest a drug rectally.

   Synonyms: boof