Other forms: plugs, plugged, plugging
A plug is the part at the end of a cable that goes into the wall for power. Three pins in Britain, two in most of Europe.
The word also means anything that stops a hole, which is the older sense, so a bath has a plug and so does a leak. As a verb it covers both, since you plug something in and you plug a gap. Broadcasting gave it a third life, since plugging a book means mentioning it to promote it. Pulling the plug on a project means stopping it deliberately.
1nounplugThe fitting on a cable that connects to an electrical socket.
“The plug had worked loose from the socket.”
2nounmaterialA piece of material that stops a hole.
“She pulled the plug out of the bath.”
3verbpromoteTo promote something by mentioning it publicly.
“He plugged his new book twice in ten minutes.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Dutch
plug
English, today
plug
Borrowed from Dutch plug. 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”), German Pflock (“peg”). Possibly akin to Lithuanian plúkti (“to strike, hew”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA