Word.ws English Dictionary

pull out all stops

UK/ˈpʊl‿aʊt‿ɔːl ˈstɒps/US/ˈpʊl‿aʊt‿ɔl ˈstɑps/

pull out all stops is the alternative form of pull out all the stops.

Meaning of pull out all the stops

Verb

pull out all the stops (third-person singular simple present pulls out all the stops, present participle pulling out all the stops, simple past and past participle pulled out all the stops)

  1. (idiomatic) To hold back or reserve nothing.
    • They pulled out all the stops for the gala wedding.
    Synonyms:
    empty the tank, give one's all, go all out, go balls to the wall, go the whole nine yards, go up to eleven, open the floodgates

Forms of pull out all stops

third-person singular presentpulls out all stops
present participlepulling out all stops
past participlepulled out all stops
pastpulled out all stops

Words that rhyme with pull out all stops

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pull out all stops

What is pull out all stops the alternative form of?
Pull out all stops is the alternative form of pull out all the stops.
How do you pronounce pull out all stops?
Pull out all stops is pronounced /ˈpʊl‿aʊt‿ɔːl ˈstɒps/ (UK).

Words near pull out all stops in the dictionary

  1. pull oneself
  2. pull oneself together
  3. pull oneself up by one's bootstraps
  4. pull oneself up by one's own bootstraps
  5. pull out
  6. pull out all stops
  7. pull out all the stops
  8. pull out of a hat
  9. pull out of one's arse
  10. pull out of one's ass
  11. pull out of the bag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull out all stops (page history and authors); pull out all the stops (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “pull out all stops.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pull_out_all_stops. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.