Pulling out all the stops?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Pulling out all the stops?

Anyways, “pulling all the stops” means, literally, removing all blockages and hindrances so that you can go all out, giving your all in trying to achieve something. The “stops” are what are called “pull-stops” in pipe organs.

Indeed, this phrase is musical in origin. This, from JedWord.com (January 5, 2017):

The origin of the word emerges in the 19th century when the design and construction of pipe organs began to become more common. The complexity of the organs magnified dramatically with the onset of manufacturing techniques, and then, in the 20th century, with the addition of electricity to the picture, organ-building became a high-tech industry. The ability to replicate voices of music that had never been imagined before called for methods of blending sound, volume and intensity which had previously depended upon pumping air through the pipes … sometimes by physical action on the part of a person who pumped the organ’s bellows by hand.

To facilitate that growing desire for enhanced organ sound, the organs were equipped with pull-stops, such as those pictured on the right side of the organ console in the picture above. Pulling the stops while playing the keyboard, an accomplished organist can achieve unbelievably beautiful contrasts in the sound being produced by the organ. Some stops increase volume and intensity; others take the organ to a whisper and a more delicate sound, as in that of a flute or piccolo. The grandiosity of the organ is somewhat tied to the number of those combinations of stops that can be installed when the organ is designed or re-designed.