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

Officers tried to stop a black Audi on Birmingham Road shortly before 17:30 BST on Monday but the driver failed to pull over, Warwickshire Police said.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Occasionally, a leisure driver bunches up the group until they pull over at the next turnout to let the faster drivers pass.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 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

The perpetrators told her to drive to the sheriff’s office to settle the signature issue, then ordered her to pull over before she arrived: Bail had to be deposited all at once, not in increments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

Chase staked out a ground tarp so it wouldn’t blow away, then staged a second tarp to pull over the boxes in case it started to rain.

From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith

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