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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
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
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 Why TikTok livestream selling can drive big sales Three forces are pulling sellers toward livestream commerce, and Duplantis’s numbers reflect all of them. — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 30 Aug. 2026 Wildfire risk is pushing insurers to underwrite hotels based on physical resilience rather than location alone, and carriers are pulling back from some markets entirely. — Josipa Majic Predin, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026 Church & Dwight Analyst Anna Lizzul said in a recent note to clients that Church & Dwight management is pulling all the right levers in its turnaround. — Michael Bloom, CNBC, 29 Aug. 2026 The suspect was uncooperative during the contact and physically resisted, briefly pulling the officer partially inside his vehicle, Lincoln police said in a social media post. — Tania Azhang, Sacbee.com, 29 Aug. 2026 The All-Pro left tackle spent the weeks since pulling a hamstring during a conditioning run on the first day of training camp riding a stationary bike, grinding on a VersaClimber, working in the pool and skiing his way back into football shape. — Rick Stroud, The Orlando Sentinel, 28 Aug. 2026 Video from the scene showed rescuers helping a man covered in mud out of the tunnel by pulling and pushing. — Niranjan Shrestha, Chicago Tribune, 28 Aug. 2026 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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pulling
  1. hauling
  2. prying
  3. stretching
  4. dragging
  5. yanking
  6. straining
  7. tugging
  8. extracting
Verb
  • The semi truck was hauling approximately 50,000 pounds of tires, according to CHP officials.
    — Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Shimano has included two settings, one for general riding and one for hauling cargo or passengers.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of hauling
Verb
  • Spanning 42 feet long and more than 14 feet wide, the observatory is designed to explore the outer solar system and beyond – prying into previously unobservable areas of the universe to study dark energy and search for exoplanets.
    — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
  • This is an uncomplicated yarn about a man prying open his heart and nudging other hard nuts to do the same.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of prying
Verb
  • The seasonal calendar is stretching earlier, chains are competing to own the first sip of autumn, and customers are voting with their orders.
    — Lauren Schuster, Charlotte Observer, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Once owned by an heir to the Getty oil fortune, a full-floor penthouse atop San Francisco’s Russian Hill with wraparound terraces and views stretching from the Golden Gate Bridge to the downtown skyline is on the market for nearly $20 million.
    — David Caraccio, Sacbee.com, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of stretching
Verb
  • As mentioned previously, Babcock obstinately played a late-career Marleau in significant minutes during his time in Toronto with dragging results.
    — Janson Duench, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
  • The officer ordered him to stop, but the man continued driving, dragging the officer a short distance.
    — Mike Hellgren, CBS News, 23 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
  • Norman also has a tendency to raise fiscal concerns about some of the president’s priorities, at times straining his relationship with the president.
    — Justin Papp, CNBC, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Data centers have become the largest driver of surging electricity demand that is straining US power grids.
    — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 24 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
  • Against that backdrop, Pina’s speech asserted the platform should be regarded as a partner to television, rather than a tech giant extracting audiences and value from it.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Lynn was reluctant to take credit for extracting the performance from Curry.
    — Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of extracting

Browse Nearby Words

pull in
pulling
pulling a face
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Pulling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pulling. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All