plug into

plug into (third-person singular simple present plugs into, present participle plugging into, simple past and past participle plugged into) (ditransitive)

1. To connect an electric device into something using a plug.

   I spent ages trying to fix my computer, before realizing that it wasn't plugged into the wall.

2. (figuratively) To join something in the manner of a plug.
   • 2022 November 24, Pranshu Verma, “Sam's Club's AI knows how much pumpkin pie you'll eat this holiday”, in Washington Post‎:

     Those data points, and others, plug into an artificial intelligence model they’ve made. It spits out recommendations to each store leader, such as how many pies need to be on-hand in their shops by the hour. Last year, Sam’s Club sold enough pumpkin pies to fill up 450 football fields, officials said. (They declined to give an exact figure.)

3. (idiomatic) To become aware of or knowledgeable about.
   • 1997 October 24, Tom Horton, “Michener's 'Chesapeake' revisited Novel: While not a masterpiece, the book enables readers to plug into what is ecologically important.”, in The Baltimore Sun‎:

     Environmental education is just now grappling with this: how to enable a populace that will change jobs and locations frequently to plug into what is ecologically important in preserving whatever landscape it finds itself in?

4. (idiomatic, mathematics) To replace a variable with a number in order to solve an equation.

   If you know two sides of a right triangle, you can find the third by plugging them into the Pythagorean Theorem.

• plug in