tug

verb
/tʌɡ/

Etymology

From Middle English tuggen, toggen, from Old English togian (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-West Germanic *togōn, from Proto-Germanic *tugōną (“to draw, tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Cognate with Middle Low German togen (“to draw”), Middle High German zogen (“to pull, tear off”), Icelandic toga (“to pull, draw”). Related to tow.

  1. derived from *dewk-
  2. inherited from *tugōną
  3. inherited from *togōn
  4. inherited from togian
  5. inherited from tuggen

Definitions

  1. To pull or drag with great effort.

    • The police officers tugged the drunkard out of the pub.
  2. To pull hard repeatedly.

    • He lost his patience trying to undo his shoe-lace, but tugging it made the knot even tighter.
  3. To tow by tugboat.

  4. + 10 more definitions
    1. To masturbate.

    2. A sudden powerful pull.

      • At the tug he falls, / Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.
      • But Van Persie slotted home 40 seconds after the break before David Wheater saw red for a tug on Theo Walcott.
    3. A tugboat.

      • Shipping of every sort, from passenger liners to ferry steamers, tramps to tugs and trailing barges, feluccas to speedboats and yachts, from warships to caiques, chugs, hoots, glides or churns its way in all directions.
    4. A type of tractor used for moving trailers.

    5. A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles.

      • Cattiwi came down the steep lane with his five-horse timber-tug
    6. A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.

    7. A dog toy consisting of a rope, often with a knot in it.

    8. An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.

    9. An act of male masturbation.

      • He had a quick tug to calm himself down before his date.
    10. A foundationer or colleger at Eton.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for tug. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA