pulling

verb

present participle of pull
1
as in hauling
to cause to follow by applying steady force on a team of horses pulling a heavy wagon

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in prying
to draw out by force or with effort the dentist had to struggle to pull the tooth

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in stretching
to injure by overuse, misuse, or pressure lift the crate carefully, or you'll pull a muscle

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pulling Conceiving it is one thing, pulling it off another entirely, and here Ballard’s technique and execution were flawless. — Conor O'Neill, New York Times, 23 Aug. 2026 Summary Bitcoin was rejected at $79,500, pulling back to $76,000 after a strong rally from $63,000. — Boaz Sobrado, Forbes.com, 23 Aug. 2026 Bermuda grass rhizomes can occur 6 to 8 inches deep, so simply pulling the surface runners or shallow cultivation will not eliminate it. — Sj McShane, Martha Stewart, 23 Aug. 2026 People who originally stopped because they were intrigued by the sight of a guy pulling pizzas out of a Smart car have become regulars and bring friends. — Bradley Alvelo, CNBC, 22 Aug. 2026 Then, unmistakably, forward movement, the car pulling itself back to life. — Ledio Cakaj, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2026 Absolutely, but that hasn’t necessarily translated to pulling back, at least across our outlet centers. — Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 21 Aug. 2026 Rescue crews were able to save lives in their response by pulling an elderly woman out of a tree when her house washed away, Green said. — Dalia Faheid, CNN Money, 16 Aug. 2026 Valencia led off the fourth inning with his sixth home run in 50 career at-bats, pulling the Tigers within a run. — CBS News, 15 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pulling
  1. hauling
  2. prying
  3. stretching
  4. dragging
  5. yanking
  6. straining
  7. tugging
  8. extracting
Verb
  • Still hauling out a heavy upright vacuum for everyday cleaning?
    — Isabel Garcia, PEOPLE, 19 Aug. 2026
  • That combination could help soldiers spend less time hauling equipment and more time focused on combat tasks.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of hauling
Verb
  • With other phones, even something simple like replacing an aging battery often requires melting adhesive, prying apart fragile glass panels, and decoupling cables.
    — Ryan Whitwam, ArsTechnica, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Netflis is keeping the logline a hop, skip and a jump from prying eyes but it is known to be a mother-daughter story involving teleportation.
    — Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of prying
Verb
  • There was no mistaking the silver-dollar-thick main beams, each stretching close to 30 inches from base to tip.
    — Jeff Murray, Outdoor Life, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Dallas uses motions and shifts in both the run and the pass game; their rushing attack features powerful gap concepts but also layered, stretching zone runs.
    — Jourdan Rodrigue, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of stretching
Verb
  • Main Street pain Meanwhile, Treasury yields are dragging on Main Street.
    — Matt Peterson, CNBC, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Enes Kanter Freedom turned Angel Reese's latest crunch-time miss into fresh ammo Sunday, roasting the Atlanta Dream star while somehow dragging Paul George into his ongoing WNBA campaign.
    — Alejandro Avila OutKick, FOXNews.com, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of dragging
Verb
  • The episode feinted toward genuine rapprochement before yanking the rug out, leaving the Gang pelted with an industrial-grade indoor blizzard and then happily chucking rocks at passing trains, as was Mac and Charlie’s childhood tradition.
    — Dennis Perkins, Entertainment Weekly, 28 July 2026
  • The tentacular Scylla is seen briefly but makes an impact, yanking sailors off Odysseus’s ship in a series of loud jump scares.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 16 July 2026
Definition of yanking
Verb
  • Bellinger is potentially days away from returning to the lineup after straining his hamstring last month, and will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Thursday.
    — Chris Kirschner, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2026
  • Houston officials are warning teachers that health care is straining the budget.
    — Bob Herman, STAT, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of straining
Verb
  • Teams earned points by winning weekly head-to-head battles – tugging a sled across the field the fastest, surviving a heated game of dodgeball – and by simply doing the right thing.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Other players rushed to the scene, with linebacker Dre Greenlaw tugging right tackle Colton McKivitz to the ground, prompting fullback Kyle Juszczyk to enter the fray and a dogpile ensued.
    — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 31 July 2026
Definition of tugging
Verb
  • And like any foundational infrastructure, extracting true, durable productivity contributions demands significant capital expenditure, painstaking organizational restructuring and time.
    — Ivan Illan, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Meanwhile, the collaboration can continue extracting information from its remaining data.
    — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of extracting

Browse Nearby Words

pull in
pulling
pulling a face
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Cite this Entry

“Pulling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pulling. Accessed 26 Aug. 2026.

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