tugged; tugging
1
: to pull or strain hard at
3
: to tow with a tugboat
tugger
noun
tugrik, tugriks
Examples of tug in a Sentence
Verb
I felt someone tugging on my sleeve.
She tugged the cord until the plug came out of the wall socket.
Noun
He felt a gentle tug on his sleeve.
gave the man in front a tug on his shirtsleeve as a sign that he was supposed to step aside
Recent Examples on the Web
Rob Ledonne, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2025
The contraption—as much pendulum as plane—reared and dipped as its pilot, a Tyrolian biologist in an olive-drab flight suit and amber shooting glasses, tugged on the steering levers.
—Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
Dakotah Tyler, Scientific American, 18 Feb. 2025
The 185-foot vessel, known as Yard Derrick 254, was guided into place by tug boats operating near the western tip of Shelter Island.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tug
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Verb
Instead, the powers that be at Frito-Lay decided to tug at America’s heartstrings by taking us straight to the heartland.
—Rob Ledonne, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2025
The contraption—as much pendulum as plane—reared and dipped as its pilot, a Tyrolian biologist in an olive-drab flight suit and amber shooting glasses, tugged on the steering levers.
—Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
Noun
Astronomers discovered 51 Pegasi b by detecting a wobble in its star’s motion caused by the gravitational tug of the orbiting planet—a technique called the Doppler (or radial velocity) method.
—Dakotah Tyler, Scientific American, 18 Feb. 2025
The 185-foot vessel, known as Yard Derrick 254, was guided into place by tug boats operating near the western tip of Shelter Island.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tug
Cite this Entry
“Tug.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tug. Accessed 1 Mar. 2025.
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