Definition
nounA pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
nounA pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one., An electric socket: wall plug.
Sentence Examples
Let's plug up the hole.
Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized or grounding-type plug.
The iron is fitted with a three-pin plug.
Word Origin & History
From Dutch plug, from Middle Dutch plugge (“peg, plug”), from Old Dutch *pluggi, from Proto-West Germanic *plugi. Further origin unknown. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *plugjaz, but the word seems originally restricted to northern continental West Germanic. Perhaps ultimately from the same source as Dutch plag (“cut-out sod”), itself considered to be from a substrate.
Compare German Low German Plüg, Norwegian plug (“peg, wedge”, probably borrowed from Middle Low German), German Pflock (“peg”, restricted to Central German and phonetically divergent). Possibly akin to Lithuanian plúkti (“to strike, hew”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
"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: