pull the plug

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Verb

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.
    Shut off the machine and pull the plug.
    He put an end to the loud music by pulling the plug.
  2. (intransitive, informal) To turn off life support.
  3. (intransitive, informal) To commit suicide.
    • 1981, The Jim Carroll Band, People Who Died
      Cathy was eleven when she pulled the plug / On twenty-six reds and a bottle of wine
    • 2007, Lee Stockdale, Murder of Law (page 118)
      "The Times said it was suicide," said Knight.
      "He burned himself out. There wasn't anything left." The Dean leveled his eyes at Reid, searching for more, wanting more, not wanting more, and Reid continued, "So he pulled the plug."
      "Pulled the plug? The paper said it was cyanide," his voice filled with curiosity.
  4. (intransitive, informal) To cease to support; to halt. [with on ‘someone or something’]
    It's a wonder the director didn't pull the plug on that project months ago.
    • 2020 July 15, Mike Brown talks to Paul Clifton, “Leading London's "hidden heroes"”, in Rail, pages 42–43:
      "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?
      "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.
  5. (intransitive, informal) To cease production or publication.

Translations

References

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