pull out1
1Withdraw from an undertaking: he was forced to pull out of the championship because of an injury...
- Both parties can pull out of the mediation process if they are unsatisfied but a signed mediation agreement is legally binding.
- The 1992 agreement allows either party to pull out of the pact 12 months after providing formal written notice to the other side.
- Hunter was forced to pull out of the Games and take early retirement.
Synonyms
withdraw, resign, leave, retire, step down, get out, quit, back out, bow out
1.1Retreat or cause to retreat from an area: the army pulled out, leaving the city in ruins (pull someone out) the CIA had pulled its operatives out of Tripoli...
- The military had been sent to keep martial law, but because of the wars, they were pulled out.
- Pictures of hunger in Somalia beckoned U.S. troops in, pictures of American soldiers in 1993 pulled us out.
- The President pulled them out and went to war anyway, over their objections.
Synonyms
retreat from, leave, quit, abandon, give up, stop participating in, get out of, back out of, bow out of, renege on
2(Of a bus or train) leave with its passengers: the train pulled out of the station at 2.05...
- Corinne and I managed to choose a carriage with a bunch of Geordie blokes who started drinking as soon as the train pulled out of the station, at about half ten in the morning.
- When every man was in possession of two bottles of Tiger beer, the train pulled out of Nagpur Station to continue the five-day journey.
- The doors closed and the train pulled out of the station.
3(Of a vehicle) move out from the side of the road, or from its normal position in order to overtake: as he turned the corner a police car pulled out in front of him...
- Time and time again I put my foot down in that Beemer, pulled out to overtake the Rover, and then when I was on the wrong side of the road simply ran out of oomph.
- A man driving a Vauxhall Corsa car pulled out from a slip road and clipped the side of a lorry.
- They also tend to pull in, leaving the second half of the bus in the middle of the road, then pull out when people are overtaking the bus.
See parent entry: pull
pull-out2
/ˈpʊlaʊt
/adjective
(Of a section of a magazine, newspaper, or other publication) designed to be detached and kept: the figures are presented in a pull-out annual report...
- He handed over the pull-out section of his magazine, entitled ‘Top 100 Sexiest Movie Stars’ or something like that.
- The Guardian's pull-out supplement on the same day sported a black cover with just the words ‘Oh, God’ in the middle.
- Please use the Convention 2005 special pull-out section for all your registration needs.
noun
1A pull-out section of a magazine or newspaper: don’t miss Monday’s 8-page Games pull-out...
- This week school leavers are poring over those pull-outs in the newspapers giving the official lists of vacancies at British universities for everything from accommodation management to youth studies (I'm not making it up).
- A few teachers were catching up on things, but some appeared to have caught up, and were catching up on computer games and newspaper bargain shopping pull-outs instead (and this included the headmaster).
- As a pull-out in the magazine suggests, ‘Do you feel lucky?’
2A withdrawal, especially from military involvement or participation in a commercial venture: the peace plan was based on a pull-out from the occupied territory...
- He concluded by calling on the movers of a motion calling for the early pull-out of British troops to withdraw their motion in the interests of party unity.
- In the end, the opposition motion was composited from those submitted by 13 CLPs and did not even call for an immediate withdrawal of British troops, urging only an ‘early pull-out.’
- That pull-out also went ahead despite the attack.