as in pull
the act or an instance of applying force on something so that it moves in the direction of the force
gave the man in front a tug on his shirtsleeve as a sign that he was supposed to step aside
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
2
as in to struggle
to devote serious and sustained effort
she's tugged all her life to get to where she is now in the business world
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tug
Mike Wall, Space.com, 15 Dec. 2025
That night, the mental tug of war brought an exasperated reaction in the stands when the fourth official showed six minutes of stoppage time, only for Saka to score the second within a minute.
—Art De Roché, New York Times, 14 Dec. 2025
New Atlas, 18 Dec. 2025
In fact, one of my most vivid memories was sitting between my mother’s legs getting my hair brushed, tugged, and pulled into a low, sleek bun for my track meets.
—Essence, 18 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tug
Noun
Otter Pup 1 was supposed to rendezvous with the space tug that deployed it into orbit, but that parent vehicle experienced an anomaly that scuttled that plan.
—Verb
These shifts allowed researchers to calculate how Titan’s gravity tugged on the spacecraft, revealing how flexible—or malleable—the moon is.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for tug
Noun
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But quads alone don’t explain his gravitational pull.—
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These pull-on style pants can easily be dressed down with a T-shirt to wear casually, or with a nice blouse or dress shirt and be boardroom-ready.—
Verb
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The city expects to begin negotiating a new waste hauling contract in late 2026.—
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The Tribune claimed that the city was overstating the success of the Blue Bag program by determining the recycling rate only when considering garbage sorted at MRRFs when, in fact, a lot of recyclables were going to waste transfer stations where they were hauled to landfills.—
Verb
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His strength on defense was particularly impressive for a freshman, as TCU big men Xavier Edmonds and David Punch struggled to create good looks inside the lane thanks in large part to the defense of Peat.—
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Players throughout the Heat’s rotation struggled to make shots.—
Noun
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Effectively, this turned the workspace into a yank buffer along with all your documents, and undoing any destructive editing operation thus became merely another cut and paste.—
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Visitors to China will want to lighten their grip, while folks introducing themselves to Germans should know to stop after one firm downward yank.—
Verb
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His arm was pinned into the back window of a car as a suspect sped away, dragging him across the pavement for about 100 yards, according to court documents.—
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At least one woman was dragged along the pavement as officers appeared to prepare additional crowd-control devices.—
Verb
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Lahmeyer, the Oklahoma pastor, said pastors and Christian leaders often labor under the burden of expectations.—
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The team labored in home losses to Houston and the Los Angeles Chargers, with Mahomes ultimately suffering a season-ending ACL injury in the fourth quarter of that setback against the Chargers.—
Noun
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For those with less-briny palates, a fine jerk chicken and a number of steak cuts are also available.—
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Mike’s older sister, Nancy (Natalia Dyer), is our entry point to Hawkins High; a pretty striver, she’s recently been distracted from academics by a fling with popular jerk Steve Harrington (Joe Keery).—
Verb
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Mike, played by a rangy, companionable Hugh Jackman, is a striving singer in Milwaukee who has battled the bottle, cannot consistently pay his mortgage, and keeps himself going by appearing at the state fair dressed up to look (and sound) like Don Ho.—
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Everybody loves putting on those Nora Efron classics, and the filmmakers here were striving to make something that was a modern answer to those that was in discussion with When Harry Met Sally and those greats.—
Cite this Entry
“Tug.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tug. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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