Plug

How to spell plug

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce plug

What does plug mean?

1. nounA device with metal pins that fits into a socket to make an electrical connection.
2. nounA piece of material used to block a hole or opening, such as in a sink or bath.
3. verbTo fill or block a hole, gap, or leak.
4. verbTo mention or promote a product, book, or service favourably in public.

Plug in a sentence

• noun

  He wired a new plug onto the lamp after the old one cracked.

• noun

  She pulled the plug and let the bathwater drain away.

• verb

  Workers rushed to plug the leak before the basement flooded.

• verb

  The author used the interview to plug her latest novel.

• noun

  The plug on the kettle had worked loose from the socket.

• noun

  A rubber plug kept the basin full while he shaved.

Where does plug come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Plug came into English in the sixteenth century from the Dutch or Low German word plugge, which meant a peg, a bung, or a stopper used to seal a hole, especially in a barrel or a ship's hull. Dutch shipbuilding and trade were hugely influential across the North Sea at the time, so many nautical and practical terms crossed into English from the Low Countries, and plug was one of them. The original sense was firmly physical: something you jam into an opening to block it. From that idea grew a whole family of meanings, including the electrical plug that fits into a socket (nineteenth century) and the figurative sense of giving a product a favourable mention, as if filling a slot in a broadcast. The spelling stayed refreshingly simple, a short closed syllable that mirrors its blunt, plain Germanic origin, which is why it is one of the easier words to write.

How the word is built

• plug (a single root word; no prefix or suffix), from a word meaning a peg or bung used to fill a hole