pull over

British

verb

(intr) (of a motor vehicle, driver, etc) to halt at the side of the road
(tr) (of a police officer) to instruct (the driver of a motor vehicle) to halt at the side of the road

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

pull over Idioms

Bring a vehicle to the side of the road; also, instruct a motorist to stop. For example, We pulled over to ask a passerby for directions, or The state trooper pulled the speeding motorist over. [First half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

pull over

Then the quad riders pull over for a chat, engine running.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

There’s no safe place to pull over, no signs pointing toward escape, no assurance that their lives have a destination.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Normally busy streets became eerily quiet as police directed traffic to pull over and waved people into shelters.

From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026

Investors sought to pull over $20 billion from certain private-credit funds in the first quarter, but only $11 billion was redeemed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Occasionally she’d pull over to the side of the road and motion for me to pull up beside her so she could tell me various ideas she’d come up with as she drove.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023