Library / English Dictionary

TUG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: tugged    , tugging   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sudden abrupt pull

Synonyms:

jerk; tug

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("tug" is a kind of...):

pull; pulling (the act of pulling; applying force to move something toward or with you)

Derivation:

tug (pull hard)

tug (pull or strain hard at)

tug (move by pulling hard)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships

Synonyms:

towboat; tower; tug; tugboat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("tug" is a kind of...):

boat (a small vessel for travel on water)

Meronyms (parts of "tug"):

helm (steering mechanism for a vessel; a mechanical device by which a vessel is steered)

Derivation:

tug (tow (a vessel) with a tug)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Struggle in opposition

Example:

She tugged and wrestled with her conflicts

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

contend; fight; struggle (be engaged in a fight; carry on a fight)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pull hard

Example:

This movie tugs at the heart strings

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

attract; draw; draw in; pull; pull in (direct toward itself or oneself by means of some psychological power or physical attributes)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

tug (a sudden abrupt pull)

tugger (someone who pulls or tugs or drags in an effort to move something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Pull or strain hard at

Example:

Each oar was tugged by several men

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

draw; pull (cause to move by pulling)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

tug (a sudden abrupt pull)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Move by pulling hard

Example:

The horse finally tugged the cart out of the mud

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

tug (a sudden abrupt pull)

tugger (someone who pulls or tugs or drags in an effort to move something)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Carry with difficulty

Example:

You'll have to lug this suitcase

Synonyms:

lug; tote; tug

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

carry; transport (move while supporting, either in a vehicle or in one's hands or on one's body)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Tow (a vessel) with a tug

Example:

The tugboat tugged the freighter into the harbor

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

tow (drag behind)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

tug (a powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships)

tugger (someone who pulls or tugs or drags in an effort to move something)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Strive and make an effort to reach a goal

Example:

She is driving away at her doctoral thesis

Synonyms:

drive; labor; labour; push; tug

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "tug" is one way to...):

fight; struggle (make a strenuous or labored effort)

Verb group:

bear on; push (press, drive, or impel (someone) to action or completion of an action)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tug"):

reach; strain; strive (to exert much effort or energy)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Credits

 Context examples: 

As the corona shifted closer to the black hole, the gravity of the black hole exerted a stronger tug on the X-rays emitted by it.

(NuSTAR sees rare blurring of black hole light, NASA)

Sir George Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the coronet, and his opponent at the other.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Or it may be influenced by a tidal tug from the star's red dwarf binary companion (HR 4796B), located at least 54 billion miles from the primary star.

(Hubble Finds Huge System of Dusty Material Enveloping the Young Star HR 4796A, NASA)

This complex but predictable pattern, called an orbital resonance, occurs when planets exert a regular, periodic gravitational tug on each other as they orbit their star.

(Astronomers Confirm Orbital Details of TRAPPIST-1’s Least Understood Planet, NASA)

If the planet got them later in life, the rings could have formed when small, icy moons in orbit around Saturn collided, perhaps because their orbits were perturbed by a gravitational tug from a passing asteroid or comet.

(Saturn is Losing Its Rings, NASA)

Several recent news stories have reported that a mysterious anomaly in Cassini's orbit could potentially be explained by the gravitational tug of a theorized massive new planet in our solar system, lurking far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

(Saturn Spacecraft Not Affected by Hypothetical Planet 9, NASA)

The remains of my breakfast of bread and milk stood on the table, and having crumbled a morsel of roll, I was tugging at the sash to put out the crumbs on the window-sill, when Bessie came running upstairs into the nursery.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Being in this disconsolate state, I heard, or at least thought I heard, some kind of grating noise on that side of my box where the staples were fixed; and soon after I began to fancy that the box was pulled or towed along the sea; for I now and then felt a sort of tugging, which made the waves rise near the tops of my windows, leaving me almost in the dark.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The balloon was by this time tugging hard at the rope that held it to the ground, for the air within it was hot, and this made it so much lighter in weight than the air without that it pulled hard to rise into the sky.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

They then calculated the size, position and mass of K2-229b by measuring the radial velocity of the star, and finding out how much the starlight ‘wobbles’ during orbit, due to the gravitational tug from the planet, which changes depending on the planet’s size.

(Mercury Not as Rare as Previously Thought, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)