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

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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

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 And often, data centers are pulling from municipal water supplies, Anisfeld said. — Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 5 July 2026 Haaland’s winning goal came after another bout of yanking and pulling; the striker tried to free himself by slapping the defender’s arm away, eventually just carrying on regardless. — Jack Lang, New York Times, 5 July 2026 Not one to turn down a potential sign of good luck, Neto started pulling cards. — Liana Handler follow, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2026 After pulling Ohtani as a pitcher after six innings, Roberts pinch-hit for him later in that seventh inning. — Bill Plunkett, Oc Register, 4 July 2026 These are framed by an animation of silhouetted figures gathering around the statue in protest, lassoing it with a rope, and then pulling it down—a reenactment of a moment memorialized in a painting by Johannes Oertel that is also on view nearby. — Cat Dawson, ARTnews.com, 3 July 2026 Rescuers have fanned out across La Guaira, where the worst destruction occurred, and parts of Caracas, where families and volunteers have spent days pulling survivors and victims from the rubble. — Michael Sinkewicz, FOXNews.com, 28 June 2026 With memory supply scarce and pricey, consumer electronics companies have spent the past six months pulling various levers to manage the situation, from reconfiguring product SKUs in order to reduce the bill of materials to reluctantly hiking prices. — Alexei Oreskovic, Fortune, 28 June 2026 When not pulling passengers around Central Park, the horses reside in private stables on the West Side of Manhattan or farms outside the city, depending on their work schedule. — Andrea Sachs The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 28 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pulling
  1. hauling
  2. prying
  3. stretching
  4. dragging
  5. yanking
  6. straining
  7. tugging
  8. extracting
Verb
  • Big bluegills fight hard, and hauling them out of sunken trees or thick vegetation on light tackle takes real skill.
    — Joe Cermele, Outdoor Life, 9 July 2026
  • The Stellar Kit is aimed at journalists, documentary crews and social video creators who need broadcast-quality sound without hauling a mixing board into the field.
    — Damion Taylor, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026
Definition of hauling
Verb
  • These evergreen or deciduous shrubs protect your garden oasis from prying eyes and create a sense of solitude.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 24 June 2026
  • The two have already had a few chats away from prying eyes and shared a few kisses.
    — Allison DeGrushe, StyleCaster, 10 June 2026
Definition of prying
Verb
  • The order covers the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, stretching over Palmyra and Johnston atolls and Kingman Reef, among others.
    — Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2026
  • The Gobi Desert is a vast, cold semi-arid and arid expanse stretching across 500,000 square miles of Mongolia and northern China.
    — Roger Sands, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026
Definition of stretching
Verb
  • On Tuesday, the roller-coaster ride for AI stocks whipped back down, dragging Wall Street lower.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 July 2026
  • With the process dragging on for months, the split of drama and comedy into separate departments, with Smith as head of the former, emerged as a likely scenario by mid-May.
    — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 8 July 2026
Definition of dragging
Verb
  • Haaland’s winning goal came after another bout of yanking and pulling; the striker tried to free himself by slapping the defender’s arm away, eventually just carrying on regardless.
    — Jack Lang, New York Times, 5 July 2026
  • Now, with the federal and state government yanking back plenty of that funding and directly barring the city from enacting some of its more aggressive climate plans, Higgins is left with a narrow road to tread toward progress.
    — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 1 July 2026
Definition of yanking
Verb
  • Analysts warned that the protests also risk straining South Africa’s security sector — which may further dampen business sentiment — considering the deployment required to prevent last week’s demonstrations from spiralling.
    — Tiisetso Motsoeneng, semafor.com, 10 July 2026
  • Rising rents and increasingly expensive grocery runs are straining budgets nationwide.
    — Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 9 July 2026
Definition of straining
Verb
  • Jude, meanwhile, was shifting from tossing cones to tugging at his ears, afflicted with the same malady that had landed several of the toddlers on the room’s version of the injury list.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 30 June 2026
  • These ergonomic neoprene handle wraps provide additional cushioning around the handles of your carry-on or checked suitcase, a dream for tired, achy hands after a day of tugging luggage.
    — Amelia McBride, Travel + Leisure, 24 June 2026
Definition of tugging
Verb
  • The work focuses on FLiBe, a molten salt made of fluorine, lithium, and beryllium that is considered one of the leading materials for producing and extracting tritium inside future fusion reactors.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 8 July 2026
  • The government is also extracting data from devices that law enforcement recently seized, Winik added.
    — Chloe Atkins, NBC news, 2 July 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 11 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of pulling for Spanish Speakers

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