peg the needle

peg the needle (third-person singular simple present pegs the needle, present participle pegging the needle, simple past and past participle pegged the needle)

1. To cause the hand of a dial indicator to reach the highest measurement, due to reaching the maximum measurable speed, pressure, etc.
   • 1957, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences.

     "Even so, all six subjects immediately pegged the needle in their first attempt to reach midscale."

   • 1989 December, Popular Mechanics, volume 166, number 12:

     "If that pegs the needle, then the wiring between the sender and gauge is bad."

2. (idiomatic) To achieve the maximum level of something, to max out, to pull out all the stops.
   • 2008 August 22, Nick Barbaro, “The Luv Doc”, in The Austin Chronicle:

     "There will be plenty of time to cool off when you're dead, so you might as well peg your needle to the red."

   • 2014, John E. Conway, Buckrammer's Tales: The Continuing Catboat Summers Adventures:

     "Thus I suspected that a trip to Chelsea might peg the needle on the religious experience meter but if biodiesel one wanted, that is where one got it."

   • 2016, May 28, Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY Sports.

     "The returning talent figures to be pegging the needle on the hype meter once again."