to pull over
- phrasal verb
- /pʊl ˈoʊvər/
- I need to pull over to the side of the road to take a phone call.
- pull over onto the shoulder
- pulled over by the police
Oh, the guy kept having to pull over to breathe fresh air.
- Oh, the guy kept having to pull over to breathe fresh air.
- It got so bad that I had to pull over to turn off my phone.
- We were just talking and a cop pulled us over and we got tickets for street racing.
- So I've been pulled over like I think only once, maybe twice.
- I was driving and I was not doing well and driving and I pulled over and got help right there.
- I'm still on the property of the Buffalo Bills and I got pulled over twice in the facility.
- So Heisenberg is bombing down the motorway in his BMW and the police pull him over.
- Not only that, he was pulled over by the feds and the pills were confiscated.
- So now cops can target cars that look black which give them more of an opportunity to pull people over who are black.
- It was kind of late at night, and I ordered my food and the girl said, well, can you pull over 'cause you know, we're cooking and bringing out to you.
- So we get in a a chase through upper Manhattan, finally get him pulled over in front of these apartments on Dyckman St.
Examples
-
Michael motioned for the driver to pull over and showed him the map.
Fiction book (1993) -
Pull over, we're here.
-
I was driving and I was not doing well and driving and I pulled over and got help right there.
-
Sure enough light turns green, get the lights coming up and I pull over and think what did I do wrong?
-
Look, I gotta pull over alright, and get some gas.
-
So when do you want me to pull over?
-
I had to pull the car over on the side of the road because I forgot where I lived.
-
I'm a little early for my appointment, so I pulled over just to check in.
-
When he saw us, he smiled and waved warmly, and we pulled over to offer him a ride.
Academic text (2015) -
Three blocks later, Kurt veered right and pulled the van over at the 23rd Street pier.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
To stop a vehicle and leave it in a place for a short time
To move a vehicle or animal to the side to stop it
To stop or slow down a vehicle at a place
To stop a vehicle at a place
Stop a car or taxi at the side of a road
Drive a car to the side of the road and stop
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'move a vehicle to the side and stop' is directly derivable from combining 'pull' (to move) with the particle 'over' (indicating movement to the other side/over), forming a motion + particle phrasal verb. This compositional pattern is common and predictable, so an average B1 learner who knows the constituent words is likely to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Pull over comes from a simple driving image: you pull the car over to the road edge and stop. That's why it means 'to move a vehicle to the side of the road and stop'.