1
as in pulled
to cause to follow by applying steady force on
tugged on the door until it opened
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in struggled
to devote serious and sustained effort
she's tugged all her life to get to where she is now in the business world
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tugged
Heartstrings are tugged with relish.
—
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 12 Mar. 2026
Smoldering at the camera, the star—who’s currently dating Scooter Braun—tugged down the straps of the plum-chocolate bra and covered her chest with her hands.
—Lara Walsh, InStyle, 7 Mar. 2026
When owner Nicholas Iwaniuk saw his dog Shadow, the half Australian shepherd, half Australian cattle dog tugged at her leash, charged forward and jumped into his arms.
—Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 4 Mar. 2026
From life’s first moments, multiplying cells are squished, stretched, and tugged to form tissues that bend and twist into organs that expand and contract.
—Clare Watson, Quanta Magazine, 27 Feb. 2026
And when Sky and Virginia were playing in a backyard sandpit one day, her little brother tugged on her T-shirt, pointing toward a snake.
—Laura Trujillo, USA Today, 21 Feb. 2026
Baseball still tugged at his heart.
—Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2026
Yelkur ranked Google’s Gemini commercial about imagining a new home as one of the most emotionally appealing, likeable ads that tugged at the heartstrings.
—Lorena O’Neil, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2026
After a few demonstrations, Destiny tugged the cord the way Carol showed us, and the bike roared to life.
—Hazlitt, 4 Feb. 2026
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 12 Mar. 2026
Smoldering at the camera, the star—who’s currently dating Scooter Braun—tugged down the straps of the plum-chocolate bra and covered her chest with her hands.
—Lara Walsh, InStyle, 7 Mar. 2026
When owner Nicholas Iwaniuk saw his dog Shadow, the half Australian shepherd, half Australian cattle dog tugged at her leash, charged forward and jumped into his arms.
—Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 4 Mar. 2026
From life’s first moments, multiplying cells are squished, stretched, and tugged to form tissues that bend and twist into organs that expand and contract.
—Clare Watson, Quanta Magazine, 27 Feb. 2026
And when Sky and Virginia were playing in a backyard sandpit one day, her little brother tugged on her T-shirt, pointing toward a snake.
—Laura Trujillo, USA Today, 21 Feb. 2026
Baseball still tugged at his heart.
—Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2026
Yelkur ranked Google’s Gemini commercial about imagining a new home as one of the most emotionally appealing, likeable ads that tugged at the heartstrings.
—Lorena O’Neil, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2026
After a few demonstrations, Destiny tugged the cord the way Carol showed us, and the bike roared to life.
—Hazlitt, 4 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tugged
Verb
-
Her hair, with a neat middle part, was pulled back tightly into a low bun to frame her face perfectly, and it was all punctuated with a strong red lip.—
Gretta Monahan,
Boston Herald,
19 Mar. 2026
-
With the win, Minnesota (10-3-3-4) pulled even with Boston atop the PWHL standings with 39 points.—
Theodore Tollefson,
Twin Cities,
19 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
The strike caused an intense fire at the hospital, with footage from local television showing rescue crews combing through the wreckage with flashlights late into the night as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
19 Mar. 2026
-
Both teams struggled in their previous games, though.—
Corey Masisak,
Denver Post,
19 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
There were previously more headstones before a 1940s landowner had many of them hauled away into the swamp.—
Patrick Connolly,
The Orlando Sentinel,
18 Mar. 2026
-
After the truck hit a tree and caught fire, Miller, in the front passenger seat, was trapped inside until a friend from a different vehicle smashed a window with a tree branch and hauled him out, according to the lawsuit and witness reports.—
Ethan Baron,
Mercury News,
18 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Irish workers also labored in rail yards and mines in the area.—
Paula Kane,
The Conversation,
13 Mar. 2026
-
My fascination extended to gardeners, who voluntarily labored to create something with no hope of permanence.—
Amy Waldman,
Travel + Leisure,
9 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Petzold dragged his chair a little closer to listen.—
Holden Seidlitz,
New Yorker,
20 Mar. 2026
-
As the suspect began to drive off, the 66-year-old woman was dragged by the car, and her mother was run over, court documents show.—
JT Moodee Lockman,
CBS News,
19 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
De Jesus worked around a one-out single and walk with a pair of strikeouts to strand two runners in the fourth.—
Jordan McPherson,
Miami Herald,
15 Mar. 2026
-
In 2025, Leidos also worked with VML to develop Imperium, an artificial intelligence platform designed to support US information operations.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Along the way, Pollan endeavored to find answers to some of the most fundamental questions of existence, like why is there a subjective self at all?—
Nick Hilden,
Rolling Stone,
24 Feb. 2026
-
One month later, Turning Point’s flagship conference descended into recriminations over the very controversies and conspiracies that its founder had endeavored so assiduously to suppress.—
Yair Rosenberg,
The Atlantic,
4 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tugged.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tugged. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.
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