plug

noun

• 1a piece of solid material fitting tightly into a hole and blocking it up:somewhere in the pipes there is a plug of ice blocking the flow
• a circular piece of metal, rubber, or plastic used to stop the plughole of a bath or basin and keep the water in it: she pulled out the plug and got out on to the sodden bath mat
• North American informal a baby’s dummy.
• a mass of solidified lava filling the neck of a volcano.
• (in gardening) a young plant or clump of grass with a small mass of soil protecting its roots, for planting out.

• 2a device for making an electrical connection between an appliance and the mains, consisting of an insulated casing with metal pins that fit into holes in a socket: the cable is fitted with a two-pin plug
• a socket into which an electric plug can be fitted: the vacuum cleaner cord snaked away to a hidden plug
• short for spark plug.

• 3 informal a piece of publicity promoting a product, event, or establishment:he threw in a plug, boasting that the restaurant offered many entrées for under £5

• 4a piece of tobacco cut from a larger cake for chewing: they sold chewing tobacco in bars and plugs
• [mass noun] (also plug tobacco) tobacco in large cakes designed to be cut for chewing: he was always chewing plug and cracking jokes

• 5 Fishing a lure with one or more hooks attached.

• 6short for fireplug.

• 7North American informal a tired or old horse.

verb (plugs, plugging, plugged)

• 1block or fill in (a hole or cavity):trucks arrived loaded with gravel to plug the hole and clear the road
• fill:the new sanctions are meant to plug the gaps in the trade embargo
• insert (something) into an opening so as to fill it:the baby plugged his thumb into his mouth

• 2 informal mention (a product, event, or establishment) publicly in order to promote it:during the show he plugged his new record

• 3North American informal shoot or hit (someone or something): he got plugged in the head while he was taking a nap

• 4 [no object, with adverbial] informal proceed steadily and laboriously with a journey or task:during the years of poverty, he plugged away at his writing