plough into

English

Alternative forms

• plow into

Verb

plough into (third-person singular simple present ploughs into, present participle ploughing into, simple past and past participle ploughed into)

1. To crash into something.

   The lorry ploughed into the line of stationary cars.

   • 1961 February, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Modern Railways, page 138:

     Tackling the rising grades south of Cropredy with the 3.10 p.m. from Paddington in a blizzard, it ploughed at about 75 m.p.h. into a herd of cows, killing six of the beasts.

   • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 30:26 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 August 2022:

     Another thing we left out was one of the lead German battleships exploding under fire, and, through a series of spectacularly-bad dice rolls, the next three battleships behind either failed to notice, or failed to dodge, and ended up ploughing right into it.

2. To engage in some activity with vigor.
   • 2011, The Economist, Samsung: The next big bet‎^[2]:

     In a bid to escape the vagaries of consumer electronics, Samsung may be ploughing headlong into the areas most ripe for invasion by a new breed of emerging-market titans.

3. (transitive) To invest a resource (money, material, energy) into something.
   • 2012, The Economist, Marketing start-ups: Geeks aren't known for their social skills‎^[3]:

     Young start-ups usually have had two financing options: hands-off venture capitalists that are willing to plough money into a company without rolling up their sleeves, or business incubators that are short on funds but wealthy in enthusiasm and knowledge.