pulling away

verb

present participle of pull away
as in detaching

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for pulling away
  1. detaching
  2. disengaging
  3. flying
  4. disentangling
  5. fleeing
  6. backing down
  7. shrinking
  8. flinching
Verb
  • To begin the overhaul, Weigand disassembled the clock on site, carefully detaching the heavy weights and unhooking the pendulum.
    — La'Tasha Givens, CBS News, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Woltanski suggests detaching the voucher from the state funding formula entirely.
    — Austin Horn, Miami Herald, 9 Oct. 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
  • Rumors about the lineup had been flying around for weeks, as per usual in the fall, with multiple reports naming the eventual headliners while the festival stayed mum on the official report.
    — Vanessa Franko, Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2026
  • Flying cars arrive XPeng plans to introduce its two-seat flying vehicle for limited commercial use in the second half of 2027.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 11 Nov. 2026
Definition of flying
Verb
  • But a big surprise comes from disentangling the income statement.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 27 Oct. 2026
  • 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
Definition of disentangling
Verb
  • The video shows the man fleeing from the officer, then turning around and starting to chase him, before pointing a weapon in the officer's direction.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2026
  • In the city known as the birthplace of the film industry, Hollywood jobs have been fleeing for years for cheaper locales.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of fleeing
Verb
  • Walzer responded thoughtfully to each of the critiques, but without backing down.
    — Jordi Graupera, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Former president Jair Bolsonaro — Flávio Bolsonaro’s father — signed a 2020 decree that opened a path toward privatizing parts of it before immediately backing down amid a wave of criticism.
    — Terrence McCoy, Washington Post, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of backing down
Verb
  • The ready-to-drink, or RTD, sports beverages are a much larger market, but the category's sales are shrinking as consumers reach for other hydration options instead.
    — Amelia Lucas, CNBC, 8 Nov. 2026
  • This approach extends capacity beyond what manufacturers could achieve through shrinking a flat arrangement of cells alone.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 7 Nov. 2026
Definition of shrinking
Verb
  • Yet Rafael, willing and even eager to die for his antifascist principles, returns Sebastián’s gaze without flinching, and with a sense of rebuke that is complicated by unspoken yet unmistakable flickers of desire.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2026
  • 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
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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Cite this Entry

“Pulling away.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pulling%20away. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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