suicide cable

Noun

suicide cable (plural suicide cables)

1. (informal) A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one.
   • When the hurricane hit and I lost power, I fired up the generator and jacked it in to the outlet in my garage with a suicide cable; at least I was able to run a few lights and my refrigerator.
   • I did the same thing as you, except I ran one suicide cable from the genset to the house, then because the genset is only 120v, I ran another suicide cable from phase to phase to get 120v throughout the house.2000 June 19, Philip Lewis, “Dedicated outlets for generator?”, in alt.home.repair (Usenet)

   Synonyms:

   suicide cord, widowmaker, male-to-male cable, male-to-male cord