tugging

verb

present participle of tug
1
as in pulling
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 laboring
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

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 tugging The sweet gallery opens with Rocki tugging at a large wig placed on her head as Rihanna can be heard laughing in the background. — Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 27 Sep. 2026 WashWise recommends holding the spray 8 to 12 inches away, applying a light mist and smoothing or gently tugging the fabric to release wrinkles. — Ryan Brennan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 Sep. 2026 In Gold Hill, Sullivan's brother-in-law solved the bear-in-Toyota problem by tugging a rope tied to a door handle. — ABC News, 8 Sep. 2026 In Gold Hill, Sullivan’s brother-in-law solved the bear-in-Toyota problem by tugging a rope tied to a door handle. — Brittany Peterson, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2026 One of the iconic Chicago Bears photos from 1985, shot during a minicamp practice in the spring, captured Walter Payton with one finger on his left hand tugging down the shorts of fullback Matt Suhey, who was lined up in the I-formation. — Chicago Tribune, 8 Sep. 2026 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 In a statement after the trial, Delaney acknowledged tugging on the student's sleeve. — William Morris, Des Moines Register, 14 Aug. 2026 After tugging on the singer's arm, the concertgoer was quickly apprehended by security. — Edward Segarra, USA Today, 31 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tugging
  1. pulling
  2. laboring
  3. hauling
  4. struggling
  5. dragging
  6. striving
  7. working
  8. trying
Verb
  • The Senate Leadership Fund’s pulling money from North Carolina is the latest signal the Republican Party is giving up hope of holding that Senate seat.
    — Natalie Allison, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Timing & Outlook XLU has given back all its Q1 outperformance, pulling back sharply as rising interest rates weighed heavily on rate-sensitive sectors.
    — Michael Khouw, CNBC, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of pulling
Verb
  • McNeely’s portrait of a laboring mother, swathed in glowing fields of chartreuse, outshines (again, literally) art history’s greats.
    — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 18 Sep. 2026
  • In line with the great tech selloff over AI spending fears, Capgemini’s share price has been laboring.
    — Kamal Ahmed, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of laboring
Verb
  • There, the couple’s daughter, Amy Johnson, explained that her parents are fighting their mother’s pancreatic cancer and that the luggage-hauling job is real.
    — David K. Li, NBC news, 28 Sep. 2026
  • That's a lot of screen for a vehicle whose primary job is still hauling stuff.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of hauling
Verb
  • In many such cases, Pennington says, parents will want to give each child an equal inheritance to be fair, but also worry about how the struggling child will fare upon receiving a sudden inheritance.
    — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Each episode, the brutally honest Ramsay comes in to help the struggling restaurant fix its problems or its negative image, and in turn the restaurants get publicity from being on a national television show.
    — Katelyn Umholtz, Kansas City Star, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of struggling
Verb
  • Both buyers and sellers remain trapped in a wait and see stance, further dragging on a US housing market that has been stagnant for nearly four years.
    — , CNBC, 29 Sep. 2026
  • In October 2022, Joseph Ancona, 20, was killed in the Columbus Circle station when his bag was caught in a door, dragging him onto the tracks before he was fatally struck by the train, FOX 5 New York reported at the time.
    — James Cirrone, FOXNews.com, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of dragging
Verb
  • The next year, Varjao and her husband Miguel Salinas opened their own Sea Love franchise of Sea Love in Oak Park and are striving to provide that same calming feeling for the community that Varjao felt during that family outing.
    — Cam'ron Hardy, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2026
  • MILKist led the initial research and technical formulation, striving to make a sufficiently strong sheet from 100 percent barley straw without adding other fibers or binders.
    — Alexandra Harrell, Footwear News, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of striving
Verb
  • Cotton kept a separate $855,000 award by the jury to Avila’s sister, Patricia Avila, who was working with Maria when the attack happened, intact.
    — Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 30 Sep. 2026
  • McGuire said the country’s murder rate is at a 126-year low and argued that falling fentanyl deaths and drug trafficking are evidence that the administration’s border and law enforcement policies are working.
    — Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of working
Verb
  • Right tackle Blake Frazier left the game in the third quarter, trying to keep weight off his right leg, and later returned to play.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 27 Sep. 2026
  • Trump already faces opposition to the Iran war among many in his own Republican Party, but trying to find a face-saving way to end it quickly could anger allies, too.
    — Robin Wright, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of trying

Browse Nearby Words

tugged
tugging
tug-of-war
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Cite this Entry

“Tugging.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tugging. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

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