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What is "tug"

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tug
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
tug
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
give sth a shake/rattle/tug etc
▪ She picked up the envelope and gave it a shake.
tug of love
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
off
▪ She tugged off his patterned trousers and the leather jerkin.
▪ The purse I tugged off the shelf in the closet was a tight-weave straw classic, wide-bottomed, with coiled straps.
▪ He tugged off the leather breastplate, then the tunic, and brushed at the blood.
▪ As if on command, the figure on the bed tugged off his hood.
▪ He tugged off the high boots and, fumbling with the buttons, he removed his officer's grey-green trousers.
■ NOUN
arm
▪ Izzie tugging on his arm, pleading, and her father pushing her away.
▪ A man at the edge of the crowd tugged at my arm.
▪ As mummy stepped out of the car park, tugging Anna's arm even though she was hurrying, she turned away from the postbox.
▪ She begins to tug at my arm.
▪ A dazed Fourth Aunt lay in bed, vaguely aware that some one was tugging on her arm.
hair
▪ The wind was tugging at her hair, the setting sun turning it to false and fleeting gold.
hand
▪ While he was blinded, Jane grabbed his beard with both hands and tugged.
▪ Baptiste took her hand and tugged her after him.
▪ She felt her eyelids dropping and woke just in time to feel her hand being tugged towards the throbbing drums.
▪ She lived like you do, a dozen slack rope-ends in each dream hand, tugging uselessly on memory or hope.
▪ Shutting the window with careful hands, he tugged trousers over his pyjamas and pulled a polo-necked sweater over his head.
▪ He felt a hand tugging at his shirtsleeve.
▪ Polly's hands tugged at his zip.
sleeve
▪ Benjamin tugged Ruthven by the sleeve, indicating he wished to talk to him.
▪ But, like Machiavelli, they are for ever tugging at the sleeves of politicians.
▪ The goat-kicking woman tugged at my sleeve and pointed, saying something I did not understand.
▪ Then the little boy, our guide, was with us again, tugging Mr Thabane's sleeve, talking excitedly.
▪ A little old woman, clearly upset, was going about tugging at people's sleeves and pointing to the figures.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
tug/tear/pull at sb's heartstrings
▪ It pulls at the heartstrings of every agent out there to see a young lady or anyone jeopardized by these conditions.
▪ That night the little creature did not stop crying and its pitiful little squeak tore at Aggie's heartstrings.
tug/touch your forelock
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "Come on," Alice said, tugging at his hand.
▪ The little girl was tugging her mother's sleeve, trying to get her attention.
▪ We tugged at the door but it still wouldn't open.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As if reading his mind Maggie tugged him across in front of her so that he could comfort his wife.
▪ As they tugged it straight the wind bellied it out, taut as a sail.
▪ But he had worked one hand loose and he made a leap as Jack tugged.
▪ Marine biologists used to study life in the ocean deeps by tugging nets behind boats and examining what they dragged up.
▪ She tugged at her skirt and adjusted her waistband.
▪ She tugged it off the body.
▪ Then, just when it seemed to have settled, it made a sharp sideways movement, tugging against the halter.
▪ You have to tug a little to break the seal, and then the door opens.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
feel
▪ As his gaze tangled with hers, Ashley felt a tug of emotional recognition.
▪ I felt a tug when the skids hit treetops.
▪ Not for the first time, Kelly felt an unmistakable tug of attraction towards him.
▪ When you feel that telltale tug, crank the handle and keep the pressure on.
▪ The Mountie, feeling the tug, turned fast and put his hand down on Sheridan's wrist.
▪ Suddenly he felt an uneven tug, the string went slack, and he realized that his efforts had been in vain.
▪ At seven it tightens and I feel a tug.
▪ He felt the tug of the tow rope.
give
▪ She gave a tentative tug at her hand.
▪ I told him to shut up and I seized the door handle and gave it a good tug.
▪ Don't be tentative or give repeated tugs which achieve nothing.
▪ Tony gave Simon a tug on his shirt, and they left the room.
▪ So he can give it a final tug to check it is closed.
▪ I gave him a tug and he immediately lifted his near-fore.
▪ After a little manipulation, the buckle slips round the handle, I give a tug, and the job is done.
▪ It gives readers that necessary tug which will take them through all sorts of possibly wearisome matters to the final page.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I seized the door handle and gave it a good tug.
▪ If you were in the crowd, you couldn't fail to feel an emotional tug.
▪ Tony gave Simon's T-shirt a tug, and they both left the room.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A tug at his trouser leg awakened him from his reverie.
▪ A tug hooting from the river.
▪ After so much delay, it never took more than one or two tugs.
▪ At Blisworth on the Grand Union Canal tugs were used from 1870 to 1936.
▪ I felt a tug when the skids hit treetops.
▪ The crew abandoned the tug, forcing the Coast Guard to send a swimmer out in high seas to rescue them.
▪ The ropes still held, but one good tug would part them like silk.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tug

Tug \Tug\, v. i.

  1. To pull with great effort; to strain in labor; as, to tug at the oar; to tug against the stream.

    He tugged, he shook, till down they came.
    --Milton.

  2. To labor; to strive; to struggle.

    England now is left To tug and scamble and to part by the teeth The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.
    --Shak.

Tug

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.]

  1. 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.

  2. To pull; to pluck. [Obs.]

    To ease the pain, His tugged cars suffered with a strain.
    --Hudibras.

Tug

Tug \Tug\, n.

  1. A pull with the utmost effort, as in the athletic contest called tug of war; a supreme effort.

    At the tug he falls, Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.
    --Dryden.

  2. A sort of vehicle, used for conveying timber and heavy articles. [Prov. Eng.]
    --Halliwell.

  3. (Naut.) A small, powerful steamboat used to tow vessels; -- called also steam tug, tugboat, and towboat.

  4. A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.

  5. (Mining.) An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.

    Tug iron, an iron hook or button to which a tug or trace may be attached, as on the shaft of a wagon.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
tug

c.1200, from weak grade of Old English teohan "to pull, drag," from Proto-Germanic *teuhan "to pull" (cognates: Old High German zucchen "to pull, jerk," German zücken "to draw quickly), from PIE root *deuk- "to lead" (see duke (n.)). Related to tow (v.). Related: Tugged; tugging.

tug

mid-14c., in reference to some part of a harness;" c.1500 as "act of pulling or dragging," from tug (v.). Meaning "small, powerful vessel for towing other vessels" is recorded from 1817. Phrase tug of war (1670s) was originally figurative, "the decisive contest, the real struggle," from the noun in the sense "supreme effort, strenuous contest of forces" (1650s). As an actual athletic event, from 1876.

Wiktionary
tug

n. a sudden powerful pull vb. 1 (context transitive English) to pull or drag with great effort 2 (context transitive English) to pull hard repeatedly 3 (context transitive English) to tow by tugboat

Related phrases:
WordNet
tug

  1. n. a sudden abrupt pull [syn: jerk]

  2. a powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships [syn: tugboat, towboat, tower]

  3. [also: tugging, tugged]

tug

  1. v. pull hard; "The prisoner tugged at the chains"; "This movie tugs at the heart strings"

  2. 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]

  3. tow (a vessel) with a tug; "The tugboat tugged the freighter into the harbor"

  4. carry with difficulty; "You'll have to lug this suitcase" [syn: lug, tote]

  5. move by pulling hard; "The horse finally tugged the cart out of the mud"

  6. pull or strain hard at; "Each oar was tugged by several men"

  7. struggle in opposition; "She tugged and wrestled with her conflicts"

  8. [also: tugging, tugged]

Wikipedia
Tug (disambiguation)

A tug or tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them.

Tug or TUG may also refer to:

Tuğ
See Tugh for the Turkic horse-tail standard.

Tuğ ( Togh and Tog) is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan and Hadrut Province of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Tug (film)

Tug is a 2010 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Abram Makowka. Shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival & the Waterfront Film Festival.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "tug".

She was not surprised by the evasion, but she gave his chest hair an admonitory little tug anyway.

Maria tugged her skirt into place, and she walked out, down the shining slate steps, through the white of daisies and the sharp agapanthus leaves that both caught the fading moon.

She muttered to herself about titanium twits and agoraphobic asses as she prepared to leave the tug.

Broken stone and iron gashed her bare feet as she plunged into the black arch of the gate, but the pain was swallowed in icy fear as thin, aimless winds tugged at heras she sensed, rather than saw, something move in the utter blackness over her head.

Tugging his hood back into place, Alec let out a low whistle of admiration.

I tugged out the flechette pistol Alem had given me and clicked off its safety.

After some tugging, he extracted a curved grey ancipital horn, which had punctured the spleen and sunk deep into the body.

As he turned his gaze back to traffic, Arra tugged at a plastic fold in her lap.

The sardonic cleric seated beside Rosvita, who kept making sarcastic asides, brushed at his shoulder when Liath tugged at his robes, as though brushing at a fly.

He heaves his booty, tugs askew his peaked cap and hobbles off mutely.

But Ava felt that old tug of sorrow for the hapless knight and smiled.

Exterminator whined and tugged on the leash, begging to visit Cole--who studiously averted his gaze.

Painfully tentative tugs at its contractile strands brought the dense, dark axial bar safely down into the pit.

Ned yelled as he tugged the pin from his last black banger, lifted the hatch, dropped it down and shut the hatch again.

He sat back watching the hugging and rejoicing, then slowly turned to leave, he felt a tugging on his ear and chuckled, Bitsy fluttered around his head and giggling kissed him on the cheek.