PULLING AWAY Synonyms: 39 Similar and Opposite Words

pulling away

verb

present participle of pull away

as in detaching

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pulling away

Verb

There have been four reports of eyes detaching from the teething toy, but no injuries have been reported, federal officials said.

— Julia Hawkins, Sacbee.com, 9 Sep. 2026
Orion and the Artemis III crew will stay docked with Starship for about a day before detaching to begin preparations for their return to Earth.

— Josh Dinner, Space.com, 20 July 2026

Definition of detaching

Verb

Nothing about that reaches the employee who is steadily gaining weight, quietly disengaging from exercise or managing chronic stress without any support.

— Neepa Patel, Forbes.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Vicki disengaging is par for the course at this point — and speaking of par, the women arrive at the country club to practice their golf swings and deliver enough material to fill an episode.

— Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of disengaging

Verb

Cutting Iran off completely from the UAE could deal a serious blow to the Islamic Republic’s economy — but experts say disentangling the pair’s commercial ties could prove difficult.

— semafor.com, semafor.com, 20 Aug. 2026
New characters and backstory details are dropped in before existing loose ends are tied up, resulting in unclear motivations and convoluted layers of subplot that, ultimately, do not prove relevant enough to have been worth disentangling.

— Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 9 Aug. 2026

Definition of disentangling

Verb

Witnesses to the March 8 shooting reported seeing a white Tesla Model 3 with a paper license plate fleeing the scene.

— Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 30 Sep. 2026
Attorneys for Carter, who is Black, have said witnesses saw a White man fleeing the crime scene and that an investigator suppressed evidence that could implicate other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.

— Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 30 Sep. 2026

Definition of fleeing

Verb

Sheeran himself has faced significant backlash over the move, with critics blasting him for backing down, not supporting Macklemore and seeking to avoid taking sides on the matter.

— Ethan Millman, HollywoodReporter, 24 Sep. 2026
Tehran has no intention of backing down in the face of an American naval blockade and attacks on its oil tankers, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 10 Sep. 2026

Definition of backing down

Verb

Engineers can try to speed them up by shrinking the physical components or applying external magnetic forces.

— Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 27 Sep. 2026
Rising logistics costs, shrinking margins and persistent supply chain volatility, in particular, are pushing leaders toward agentic AI and machine learning for demand forecasting and inventory placement.

— Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of shrinking

Verb

In my experience, automation becomes commercially viable not when failures disappear, but when the system is built to handle them without flinching.

— Shivansh Inamdar, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026
Amy Adams’ Anna Bowden — who has a complicated history with Max as his former lawyer — peeks through the curtain to spy on him, flinching as Max insists on snapping his own broken finger into place.

— Benjamin VanHoose, PEOPLE, 6 July 2026

Definition of flinching

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.

Browse Nearby Words

pulling a face

pulling away

pulling down

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Style

“Pulling away.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pulling%20away. Accessed 1 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of pulling away

verb

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