put through
Britishverb
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to carry out to a conclusion
he put through his plan
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(also preposition) to organize the processing of
she put through his application to join the organization
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to connect by telephone
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to make (a telephone call)
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Bring to a successful conclusion, as in We put through a number of new laws . [Mid-1800s]
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Make a telephone connection, as in Please put me through to the doctor . [Late 1800s]
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Cause to undergo, especially something difficult or troublesome, as in He put me through a lot during this last year . The related expression, put someone through the wringer , means “to give someone a hard time,” as in The lawyer put the witness through the wringer . The wringer alluded to is the old-fashioned clothes wringer, in which clothes are pressed between two rollers to extract moisture. [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.
The segments are broken up or mixed with solvents before being put through a chromatography process.
From BBC • May 26, 2026
I left the theater feeling giddily put through the wringer by its contrarian depictions of heroes and fiends.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
Fermin Lopez scored twice to turn the game around, only for the unlucky Robert Lewandowski to put through his own net and make it 2-2 at the interval.
From Barron's • Jan. 21, 2026
That’s by design: From the moment the Xcel left the shipyard until it welcomed its first shakedown guests, every venue was put through rigorous stress tests.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025
So we were put through every conceivable refinement of parade-ground soldiering till we often howled with rage.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
