Navigation
Home
Resources
Irregular verbs quizzes English conjugator English-French dictionary French dictionary English dictionary Monolingual dictionaries Scores by institution Free sample tests FAQ Pricing Tourism training Blog Videos
Login Sign up
Blog
Videos
Pricing
FR EN

plug in

adj, noun, verb — 11 senses

plug-in

adjalso spelled plug-in

/ˈplʌɡ.ɪn/

Etymology Deverbal from plug in.

1

Designed to be plugged into an electrical power outlet or circuit.

  • a plug-in hand drill
2

Able to be extended with further components in a modular fashion.

Antonyms
hard-wired
Related terms
plug-in hybrid

plug-in

noun

Etymology Deverbal from plug in.

1

Anything that plugs into something.

2

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A module or device that interacts with another to add a specific feature or function.

3

An electric vehicle that can be recharged from an external power source.

4

An air freshener that can be charged by connecting it to the mains power supply.

  • They take your best bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and boil it up with Satsuma peel and bits of stick, resulting in a hot sour wine and every room of the house smelling like a festive Airwick Plug-in has exploded, with the added bonus that all your best pans are now ruined. Cheers!2013, Rob Temple, Very British Problems: Making Life Awkward for Ourselves One Rainy Day at a Time, page 141:
  • But unlike other Glade products with the aroma being released simply by spraying it or by opening the container, this new product the "Glade Plug-In" required that the product actually be plugged into an electrical socket in order for the aroma and fragrance to get released into the air, with the slogan for its product being "Plug it in, plug it in".2015, Sheldon Malone, Changing the Way You Think: One-Year Devotional Unlocking the Mind with the Word of God:
2 more examples
  • Plus, I expect a Febreze plug-in would smell like heaven to me right now.2017, Poppy Dolan, The Bluebell Bunting Society:
  • I quickly picked up the dirty laundry that was scattered all around, opened the window, sprayed the room down with Febreze, changed the plug-in, and called it good.2021, Lori A. Bonnevier,MSW,LCSW, You Don't Have to Crush Your Ex: Hints, Hacks, and Hell-No's to Win Your Custody Evaluation:
Synonyms
add-in, add-on, snap-in
Related terms
drop-in
Hypernyms
software component

plug in

verb
1

Idiomatic To connect (an electrical device) to a plug socket.

  • Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again? Ok. Well, are you sure that it's plugged in?2006 Feb. 17, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4
  • I eschew the idea of plugging in my laptop to take notes and resort to old-fashioned pen and paper instead, so that I can enjoy more of the view and not be distracted by bashing a keyboard.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65:
2

Idiomatic To familiarize and integrate (a person) into an organization.

  • The drivers routinely patrol these areas- welfare offices, senior centers, even street corners- asking the Medicare patients to come with them for check-ups in return for cash. […] To get plugged in, we enlisted Lizzie Green, a 75-year-old widow who lives on social security and a small pension. She agreed to be our undercover test patient.1994 September 22, 'Clinical Evidence' - Fraudulent Medicare Claims in FL (television production), Chris Wallace (actor), ABC:
  • The Eskimos’ [football team] organizational depth has been tested early and often by a persistent injury bug that has claimed three starters […] and they continue to plug in new players and carry on.2017 July 15, Dan Barnes, “Dan Barnes: Eskimos survive late scare to remain only unbeaten CFL team”, in Edmonton Journal:
1 more example
  • Research shows that children whose parents are involved in their school make better grades and have fewer disciplinary problems at school. When parents get plugged in at school, their children do better.c. 2017, Jay Moneta Hunter Thomson, “Membership”, in Wyatt Elementary PTA:
3

Mathematics, Sciences Idiomatic To replace a variable with a number in order to solve an equation.

  • If an equation has three unknowns, you can plug in two of them to find the third.
4

Idiomatic To input or enter (data).

  • Want to find out what the bloggers are talking about before it hits the mainstream? Just sign up for PubSub […] and plug in your search terms. This site crawls more than 9 million blogs, public relations newswires, and SEC filings for relevant entries, and then e-mails you the results.2005 July, Dan Tynan, “30 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do on the Internet”, in PC World, volume 23, number 7, page 76:
5

To become involved in something.

  • The inability of the gay movement as a whole to interrelate AIDS work with the many other items on its political agenda left vast segments of the lesbian and gay community sitting on the sidelines wondering how and why to plug in.1983 December 24, Cindy Patton, “AIDS: Putting the Pieces Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 3:
Related terms
plug into

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for plug-in and plug in.