pull

Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”), of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).

Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).

• enPR: po͝ol, IPA^(key): /pʊl/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• (full-fool merger) IPA^(key): /puːl/
• Hyphenation: pull
• Rhymes: -ʊl

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

Preparing to pull a car from the mud with a rope (1)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force.

   When I give the signal, pull the rope.

   You're going to have to pull harder to get that cork out of the bottle.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 8:9:

     He put forth his hand […] and pulled her in.

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Ne'er pull your hat upon your brows.

2. To gather with the hand, or by drawing toward oneself; to pluck.

   to pull fruit from a tree

   pull flax

   pull a finch

3. (transitive) To attract or net; to pull in.
   • 2002, Marcella Ridlen Ray, Changing and Unchanging Face of United States Civil Society:

     Television, a favored source of news and information, pulls the largest share of advertising monies.

   • 2011, Russell Simmons, Chris Morrow, Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All:

     While the pimp can always pull a ho with his magnetism, he can never pull a nun. The nun is too in touch with her own compassionate and honest spirit to react to a spirit as negative and deceitful as that of the pimp.

4. (transitive, intransitive, UK, Ireland, slang) To persuade (someone) to have sex with one.

   I pulled at the club last night.

   He's pulled that bird over there.

5. (transitive) To remove (something), especially from public circulation or availability.

   Each day, they pulled the old bread and set out fresh loaves.

   The book was due to be released today, but it was pulled at the last minute over legal concerns.

6. (transitive) To retrieve or generate for use.

   I'll have to pull a part number for that.

   This computer file is incorrect. Can we pull the old version from your backups?

   • 2006, Michael Bellomo, Joel Elad, How to Sell Anything on Amazon...and Make a Fortune!:

     They'll go through their computer system and pull a report of all your order fulfillment records for the time period you specify.

7. (construction) To obtain (a permit) from a regulatory authority.

   It's the contractor's responsibility to pull the necessary permits before starting work.

8. (transitive, informal) To do or perform, especially something seen as negative by the speaker.

   He regularly pulls 12-hour days, sometimes 14.

   You'll be sent home if you pull another stunt like that.

   What are you trying to pull?

   • 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

     What are you trying to pull, anyway? You say you want to sell, but you have nothing to offer?! You've got some nerve, kid!

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 16:22 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     Faced with an enemy whose largest gun turrets weigh more than the entire ship, Johnston decides that running is boring, and instead pulls a full 180-degree turn and charges straight back at the attacking forces.

9. (with 'a' and the name of a person, place, event, etc.) To copy or emulate the actions or behaviour that is associated with the person or thing mentioned.

   He pulled an Elvis and got really fat.

   They're trying to pull a Watergate on us.

10. To toss a frisbee with the intention of launching the disc across the length of a field.
11. (intransitive) To row.
    • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Chapter VI:

      It had been a sort of race hitherto, and the rowers, with set teeth and compressed lips, had pulled stroke for stroke.

12. (transitive, rowing) To achieve by rowing on a rowing machine.

    I pulled a personal best on the erg yesterday.

13. To draw apart; to tear; to rend.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Lamentations 3:11:

      He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.

    • 2009, Ardie A. Davis, Chef Paul Kirk, America's Best BBQ, page 57:

      If you are going to pull or chop the pork butt, take it out of the smoker when the meat is in the higher temperature range, put it in a large pan, and let it rest, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes. Using heavy-duty dinner forks, pull the pork butt to shreds.

14. (transitive) To strain (a muscle, tendon, ligament, etc.).
15. (video games, transitive, intransitive) To draw (a hostile non-player character) into combat, or toward or away from some location or target.
    • 2003 April 9, Richard Lawson, “Monual's Willful Ignorance”, in alt.games.everquest‎ (Usenet):

      …we had to clear a long hallway, run up half way, pull the boss mob to us, and engage.

    • 2004 October 18, Stush, “Re: focus pull”, in alt.games.dark-age-of-camelot‎ (Usenet):

      Basically buff pet, have it pull lots of mobs, shield pet, chain heal pet, have your aoe casters finish off hurt mobs once pet gets good aggro.

    • 2005 August 2, Brian, “Re: How to tank Stratholme undead pulls?”, in alt.games.warcraft‎ (Usenet):

      This is the only thing that should get you to break off from your position, is to pull something off the healer.

    • 2007 April 10, John Salerno, “Re: Managing the Command Buttons”, in alt.games.warcraft‎ (Usenet):

      You could also set a fire trap, pull the mob toward it, then send in your pet….

    • 2008 August 18, Mark (newsgroups), “Re: I'm a priest now!”, in alt.games.warcraft‎ (Usenet):

      Shield yourself, pull with Mind Blast if you want, or merely pull with SW:P to save mana, then wand, fear if you need to, but use the lowest rank fear.

16. (UK) To score a certain number of points in a sport.

    How many points did you pull today, Albert?

17. (horse-racing) To hold back, and so prevent from winning.

    The favourite was pulled.

18. (printing, dated) To take or make (a proof or impression); so called because hand presses were worked by pulling a lever.
19. (cricket, golf) To strike the ball in a particular manner. (See noun sense.)
    • 1888, Robert Henry Lyttelton, Cricket, Chapter 2:

      Never pull a straight fast ball to leg.

20. (UK) To draw beer from a pump, keg, or other source.

    Let's stop at Finnigan's. The barman pulls a good pint.

21. (intransitive) To take a swig or mouthful of drink.
    • 1957, Air Force Magazine, volume 40, page 128:

      Danny pulled at his beer and thought for a moment.

22. (rail transportation, US, of a railroad car) To pull out from a yard or station; to leave.
23. (now chiefly Scotland, England and US regional) To pluck or pick (flowers, fruit etc.).
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

      He and some of his companions one day entered a garden in the suburbs, and having indulged their appetites, desired to know what satisfaction they must make for the fruit they had pulled.

24. (cooking, transitive, intransitive) To repeatedly stretch taffy in order to achieve the desired stretchy texture.
25. (computing) To get the latest version of a project's source code
26. (martial arts) In practice fighting, to reduce the strength of a blow (etymology 3) so as to avoid injuring one's practice partner.
27. (horse racing, transitive) To impede the progress of (a horse) to prevent its winning a race.
    • 1897, Nat Gould, Not So Bad After All, page 200:

      'I never liked Bowler, and I had my suspicions when Captain Ferndale persuaded you to put him up in that race. I did not discover until some time after that he pulled the horse.'

• (apply force to (something) so it comes toward): drag, tow, tug, yank
• (slang: to persuade to have sex with one): score
• (to remove from circulation): recall, withdraw, yank
• (to do, to perform): carry out, complete, do, execute, perform
• (to retrieve or generate for use): generate, get, get hold of, get one's hands on, lay one's hands on, obtain, retrieve
• (to succeed in finding a person with whom to have sex.): score

• (antonym(s) of “apply force to (something) so it comes towards one”): push, repel, shove

See also pulling

pull

1. (gun sports) Command used by a target shooter to request that the target be released/launched.

pull (countable and uncountable, plural pulls)

1. An act of pulling (applying force toward oneself).

   He gave the hair a sharp pull and it came out.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box.

2. An attractive force which causes motion towards the source.

   The spaceship came under the pull of the gas giant.

   iron fillings drawn by the pull of a magnet

   She took a pull on her cigarette.

3. (figurative, by extension) An advantage over somebody; a means of influencing.

   The hypnotist exerted a pull over his patients.

   • 1944, Henry Christopher Bailey, The Queen of Spades, page 72:

     Tresham's up to his eyes in dock business and town business, a regular jobmonger, he has no use for anybody who hasn't a pull.

4. (uncountable, informal) The power to influence someone or something; sway, clout.

   I don't have a lot of pull within the company.

   • 2016, Antoinette Burton, quoting Shukdev Sharma, Africa in the Indian Imagination, Duke University Press, →ISBN:

     She wants to work in the villages, and she has a lot of pull with some ministers and there she is, like a political supervisor.

   • 2017, Maggie Blake, Her Haunted Past, Book Venture Publishing LLC, →ISBN, page 126:

     I have already put Matthew Williams off for a few days. He wants to see her too, but he doesn't have pull with the director.

   • 2020 March 27, Bettina Makalintal, “Samin Nosrat's 'Home Cooking' Podcast Will Make Your Quarantine Cooking Better”, in VICE‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-06:

     If Netflix truly cared about those of us sequestered to our homes, with our shelves of beans and bad-news-addled brains, it would release either a new season of Queer Eye or another season of the similarly soothing Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat to help us bide our time. Alas, I have no pull at Netflix, and neither seems to be coming soon.

5. Any device meant to be pulled, as a lever, knob, handle, or rope.

   a zipper pull

6. (slang, dated) Something in one's favour in a comparison or a contest.

   In weights the favourite had the pull.

7. Appeal or attraction (e.g. of a movie star).
8. (Internet, uncountable) The situation where a client sends out a request for data from a server, as in server pull, pull technology
9. A journey made by rowing.
   • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V

     As Blunt had said, the burning ship lay a good twelve miles from the Malabar, and the pull was a long and a weary one. Once fairly away from the protecting sides of the vessel that had borne them thus far on their dismal journey, the adventurers seemed to have come into a new atmosphere.

10. (dated) A contest; a struggle.

    a wrestling pull

    • 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, →OCLC:

      this wrastling pull betweene Corineus and Gogmagog, is reported to have befallen at Douer.

11. An injury resulting from a forceful pull on a limb, etc.; a strain.
    • 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 162:

      They used steroids to build strength but, more importantly, to recover from strains, pulls, dislocations.

12. (obsolete, poetic) Loss or violence suffered.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

      Two pulls at once; / His lady banished, and a limb lopped off.

13. (colloquial) The act of drinking; a mouthful or swig of a drink.
    • 1882, H. Elliott McBride, Well Fixed for a Rainy Day:

      Heah , Sam Johnsing , jis' take a pull at dis bottle, an' it will make yo' feel better .

    • 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 294:

      Sutho took a pull at his Johnny Walker and Coke and laughed that trademark laugh of his and said: `Okay. I'll pay that all right.'

14. (cricket) A type of stroke by which a leg ball is sent to the off side, or an off ball to the on side; a pull shot.
    • 1887, R. A. Proctor, Longman's Magazine:

      The pull is not a legitimate stroke, but bad cricket.

15. (golf) A mishit shot which travels in a straight line and (for a right-handed player) left of the intended path.
16. (printing, historical) A single impression from a handpress.
17. (printing) A proof sheet.

• (act of pulling): tug, yank
• (attractive force): attraction
• (device meant to be pulled): handle, knob, lever, rope
• (influence): influence, sway
• (a puff on a cigarette): drag, toke (marijuana cigarette)

• (antonym(s) of “act of pulling”): push, shove
• (antonym(s) of “attractive force”): repulsion
• (antonym(s) of “device meant to be pulled”): button, push, push-button
• (antonym(s) of “influence”):

From English pull, via 拉 (“to cause a thread to sink to the bottom of list of threads”, literally “to pull”)

pull

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang, leetspeak) to cause a thread to sink to the bottom of list of threads

• 拉

• push, 推 (teoi¹)

• English: sage

From Low German bulle.

pull (genitive pulli, partitive pulli)

1. bull
2. ox

Clipping of pull-over, from English pullover.

• IPA^(key): /pyl/, /pul/

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pull m (plural pulls)

1. pullover

   Il fait froid; je vais mettre mon pull.

   It's cold; I'm going to put on my pullover.

Unadapted borrowing from English pull.

pull m (plural pulls)

1. (ultimate frisbee) pull

Onomatopoeic

pull

1. Used to attract a hen or other bird.

Usually repeated.

• pulla

• pull in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• pull in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• pull in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)