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

Pulling out all the stops?

If an organist wants to blast the organ and fill every nook and cranny of the Cathedral, (she) can pull out all the stops, which opens all the valves and produces a sound that is magnificent. However, it is a sound rarely called for in classic organ repertoire, except for tumultuous endings to grand pieces. It can be eardrum-shattering, depending upon the number of pipes, the length of them, and the girth of them.

Indeed, in actuality, musicians seldom need to pull out all the stops – singing a song or blowing the trumpet at the top tip of their lungs.

Which, of course, only makes it all the more significant and extraordinary when anyone actually does – pulling out all the stops, metaphorically speaking, in anything they do. It means they’re letting go, going all out and holding nothing back.

And here are media examples:

1. The Heat pulled out all the stops for its first home playoff game, with a pregame video highlight show complete with fireworks and lasers.

The club also handed out 15,000 noisemakers or “clackers.”

“It’s really exciting,” Miami center Rony Seikaly said before the game. “When I saw them put up the lights, I was very excited. Everyone is so wired and pumped up.”

Scalpers were asking up to $400 for tickets.

- The Heat pulled out all the stops for its first home playoff game, Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1992.

2. The Alabama Republican Party pulled out all the stops for Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the eve of his official campaign announcement Saturday at the RedState Gathering of conservative activists in Charleston.