to plug and chug
- idiom
- Informal
:
sustituir y calcular
- To calculate the area of the circle, simply plug and chug the radius into the formula you learned.
Examples
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They are reasonably comfortable with using equations to plug and chug and get numbers, but are less familiar with using them to tell stories about and gain insight into the world.
Academic text (2012) -
OK, so plug and chug and so we'll solve the same recurrence.
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In math class, we learned to just plug and chug the values into the formula to find the answer.
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When faced with simple physics problems, students often plug and chug numbers without fully understanding the concepts.
Synonyms
1
6.8
To work out numbers quickly in your head
Antonyms
How Thoughtful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts give partial clues: 'plug' can be understood as inserting values (cf. 'plug in') and 'chug' conveys rapid, repetitive action, so a learner could infer the idea of inserting numbers and working through calculations. However, the use of 'chug' to mean 'carry out routine computations' is a metaphorical extension and the fixed informal collocation 'plug and chug' is idiomatic, so the exact procedural nuance may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
Plug and chug comes from the picture of putting numbers into a formula, which is the plug, and then a machine that chugs on to do the work quickly and without thinking. That's why plug and chug means 'to get an answer by putting values into a formula and doing the routine calculations'.