PULLING Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

pulling

verb

present participle of pull

as in hauling

to cause to follow by applying steady force on a team of horses pulling a heavy wagon

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in prying

to draw out by force or with effort the dentist had to struggle to pull the tooth

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in stretching

to injure by overuse, misuse, or pressure lift the crate carefully, or you'll pull a muscle

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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 Safe haven demand temporarily outweighed inflation fears, prompting capital to exit risk assets and flow into the Treasury market, thereby pulling yields lower. — CNBC, 16 Oct. 2026 Through July, O’Hare held a cash advantage of $707,000 to Simmons’s $67,000, with his campaign pulling $135,000 from oil and gas companies alone. — Rachel Royster. Produced With Ai Assistance, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Oct. 2026 Seattle mounted a fierce fourth-quarter comeback, pulling within 14-11 on a George Holani touchdown and a two-point conversion pass from Darnold to Rashid Shaheed. — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026 Publicly, Fox News joined the rest of the media in pulling its coverage from the White House press pool. — Aidan McLaughlin, Vanity Fair, 16 Oct. 2026 With the United States pulling back, a new bargain in which Europe carries more of the nuclear burden and has more say in the choice to use these weapons is the only way to ensure transatlantic security. — Ivo H. Daalder, Foreign Affairs, 16 Oct. 2026 Priyanka Chopra Jonas tried out a unique hybrid shoe on Thursday, pulling a collaborative Matières Fécales x Christian Louboutin style straight from spring 2027 Paris Fashion Week. — Jaden Thompson, Footwear News, 16 Oct. 2026 Dell’s Data Orchestration engine already does the heavy lifting there, documents, images, video, PDFs, pulling that content into AI-ready pipelines. — Osman Koc, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026 Instead of pulling back altogether, consumers are changing their shopping habits by trading down to lower-price brands and stores, shopping earlier and relying more on credit cards and buy now pay later plans, Eshelman said. — ABC News, 15 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pulling

Verb

For now, Starship's most immediate role is hauling Starlink satellites in orbit.

— Andrew Jones, Space.com, 14 Oct. 2026
Kodiak has spent four years hauling IKEA freight on this route with a safety observer aboard.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of hauling

Verb

Or two birds face-to-face in close proximity, covering themselves with their wings as if to share a secret kiss away from prying eyes, could evoke a giggle.

— Amarachi Orie, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026
Davidson was thrust into a reality-TV world of prying paparazzi and untold media scrutiny.

— Marlow Stern, Variety, 30 Sep. 2026

Definition of prying

Verb

Erected on a hillside in 1938, Fallingwater appeared as a matrix of rectangles with low and flat horizontal lines stretching across the planes of the house.

— Wendy S. Walters, Architectural Digest, 12 Oct. 2026
Blue crabs and crawfish are sourced from Louisiana, while shellfish such as oysters, Manila clams and cherrystone clams arrive from waters stretching from the East Coast to Asia.

— Sara Rosenthal, Denver Post, 11 Oct. 2026

Definition of stretching

Verb

He’s also been known to engage with those who might not be fans of his comedic stylings, publicly arguing back and forth with civilians, dragging them on his social media for his fans to see.

— Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 14 Oct. 2026
Beaches typically go through a seasonal cycle with powerful winter waves dragging sand out to sea and more mild summer waves depositing the sand back onshore.

— Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of dragging

Verb

Zabransky was the first person to reach Rabb in the end zone, yanking him into the air for a bear hug.

— Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman, 3 Oct. 2026
There’s also an ending that revels in a form of catharsis — for the audience watching the play, not the movie — before yanking that, too, away.

— David Mack, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of yanking

Verb

Gas, groceries, insurance, rent and power bills are eating paychecks, and growth is straining our roads and schools.

— Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 14 Oct. 2026
Elleson has said Medicare should be primarily for older Americans and has suggested that immigrants are straining healthcare resources.

— Olivia Olander, Chicago Tribune, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of straining

Verb

Sitting in a boat, tugging their house behind them, the journey initially appears to be going smoothly.

— Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 8 Oct. 2026
The sweet gallery opens with Rocki tugging at a large wig placed on her head as Rihanna can be heard laughing in the background.

— Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 27 Sep. 2026

Definition of tugging

Verb

The Falcon-Emirati model and related tools for speech recognition and extracting Arabic text from images and documents are relatively compact.

— Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 8 Oct. 2026
Over the past quarter century, foreign direct investment across sub-Saharan Africa has remained relatively flat—around two to three percent as a share of GDP—and most of it has gone to extracting oil, diamonds, and gold and other minerals.

— Jared Cohen, Foreign Affairs, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of extracting

Browse Nearby Words

pull in

pulling

pulling a face

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Style

“Pulling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pulling. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of pulling

verb

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