Word.ws English Dictionary

pulling the plug

pulling the plug noun: passive euthanasia. Also the present participle and gerund of pull the plug.

Noun

pulling the plug (uncountable)

  1. (euphemistic, idiomatic) passive euthanasia
  2. (idiomatic) To stop something happening

Also used as

pulling the plug is also the present participle and gerund of pull the plug.

Questions about pulling the plug

What does pulling the plug mean?
Pulling the plug means passive euthanasia.
What part of speech is pulling the plug?
Pulling the plug is a noun.

Words near pulling the plug in the dictionary

  1. pulling the ladder up after oneself
  2. pulling the ladder up behind oneself
  3. pulling the long bow
  4. pulling the other leg
  5. pulling the pin
  6. pulling the plug
  7. pulling the rug
  8. pulling the rug out from under
  9. pulling the shutters down
  10. pulling the string
  11. pulling the trigger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulling the plug (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pulling the plug.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pulling the plug.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pulling_the_plug. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.