pull out all the stops
/ˈpʊl‿aʊt‿ɔːl ðə ˈstɒps/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.26 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "They pulled out all the stops for the gala wedding."
- "To be a Christian is to be complete in all one's parts: to pull out all the stops of one's nature, and live the Christ life, so that people may say, He lives; and yet no longer he, but Christ lives in him."
- "[T]he entire record is a form of catharsis for its performers. One track is specifically that: the Protest section of Triptych, which Abbey Lincoln pulls out all the stops, and in a fiery release of inhibitions, screams a hair-raising Protest against all those things which a Negro must ordinarily experience in silence."
- "[George] McGovern, too, was pushing himself to the limits of his strength, pulling out all the stops on Vietnam and the Watergate affair, but through the haze of exhaustion all of his speeches sounded like one long echo of the same speech."
- "It is curious that in the very same week as the country is pulling out all stops to celebrate one of its most cherished symbols to freedom and opportunity, it has at the same time further plugged up basic human rights of privacy for those who do not define themselves as heterosexual."
- "Despite missing the target to open for the Commonwealth Games, work on site hasn't slowed down. VolkerFitzpatrick and its contractors have pulled out all the stops to get the job done."
Etymology
An allusion to organ stops, which are pulled out to turn on each set of sounds in a pipe organ. When all stops are pulled out, the organ will play all variations of its sounds at once, therefore being as loud as possible.
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈpʊl‿aʊt‿ɔːl ðə ˈstɒps/
Inflected Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
empty the tank
give one's all
go all out
go balls to the wall
go the whole nine yards
go up to eleven
open the floodgates