plugs in

Verb

plug in (third-person singular simple present plugs in, present participle plugging in, simple past and past participle plugged in)

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

   Antonyms:

   unplug

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...1994 September 22, 'Clinical Evidence' - Fraudulent Medicare Claims in FL (television production), Chris Wallace (actor), ABC
3. (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.

   Synonyms:

   substitute

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