The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tug \Tug\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tugged; p. pr. & vb. n. Tugging.] [OE. toggen; akin to OD. tocken to entice, G. zucken to jerk, draw, Icel. toga to draw, AS. t['e]on, p. p. togen, to draw, G. ziehen, OHG. ziohan, Goth. tiuhan, L. ducere to lead, draw. Cf. Duke, Team, Tie, v. t., Touch, Tow, v. t., Tuck to press in, Toy a plaything.]
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To pull or draw with great effort; to draw along with continued exertion; to haul along; to tow; as, to tug a loaded cart; to tug a ship into port.
There sweat, there strain, tug the laborious oar.
--Roscommon. -
To pull; to pluck. [Obs.]
To ease the pain, His tugged cars suffered with a strain.
--Hudibras.
Wiktionary
n. The action of something that tugs; a pull. vb. (present participle of tug English)
WordNet
v. pull hard; "The prisoner tugged at the chains"; "This movie tugs at the heart strings"
strive and make an effort to reach a goal; "She tugged for years to make a decent living"; "We have to push a little to make the deadline!"; "She is driving away at her doctoral thesis" [syn: labor, labour, push, drive]
tow (a vessel) with a tug; "The tugboat tugged the freighter into the harbor"
carry with difficulty; "You'll have to lug this suitcase" [syn: lug, tote]
move by pulling hard; "The horse finally tugged the cart out of the mud"
pull or strain hard at; "Each oar was tugged by several men"
struggle in opposition; "She tugged and wrestled with her conflicts"
See tug
Usage examples of "tugging".
Hurriedly, in reverse, he sped back to the roadside marker, and, after the dust cloud had drifted away from his vehicle, gazed perplexedly for a full sixty seconds at the insolent inscription on the cross before angrily kicking open his door and circling around the car and ferociously tugging that hallowed symbol from the ground and chucking it irreligiously into the rear of the station wagon.
Outside, Snuffy seated himseK on the porch, smoking a cigarette and tugging luxuriously on his beer while O.
When Tam stopped in surprise, Rand covered his flush by tugging at the hood of his cloak.
He turned Cloud, and the gray broke into a half trot, tugging against the reins to go faster.
The boat, a good eighty feet long, shifted slightly with the current, tugging against the mooring ropes tied to trees.
Mat kept adjusting the scarf around his head, pushing it up, then blinking at the light and tugging it back down again.
A man patrolled the fences with a pair of dogs, growling and tugging at their leashes.
When she cuddled her head into his chest, his hands began a slow tugging at her braid.
He stopped tugging the candle stand out of the door and walked back to grasp her shoulders and shake her.
Tourists leaned against a rail, a cool breeze tugging their clothes as they gazed past the beach toward whitecaps.
Saul pulled down his turtleneck sweater and stepped from the car, tugging on his sportcoat.
Chris saw the driver shouting behind the windshield, tugging the rope that rang the bell, and yanking a lever.
Eliot sounded out of breath, tugging off his black topcoat and homburg hat, snowflakes melting on them.
Dark-suited militia tugging with hooks and poles at bloated bodies with eyes ripped from their heads, the blood set and gelatinous in their sockets.
As he spoke, he was leaning into the wardrobe and tugging the wooden rear back into position.