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Tug

//tʌɡ// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sudden powerful pull.

    "At the tug he falls, / Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls."

  2. 2
    A foundationer or colleger at Eton. UK, slang
  3. 3
    a sudden abrupt pull wordnet
  4. 4
    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."

  5. 5
    a powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships wordnet
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    A type of tractor used for moving trailers.

    "Trailers are delivered by road to Poole, Portsmouth, or Rosslare in Ireland. They are then loaded onto ferries by dockyard tractors called "tugs". After crossing the Channel, the driverless loads are disembarked by tug and taken to the specially constructed freight terminal in Cherbourg port. Each rail wagon holds two lorry trailers and features a new 'pivoting pocket' which moves through 45° to allow the tug to push the trailer onto the wagon from alongside."

  2. 7
    A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles. obsolete

    "Cattiwi came down the steep lane with his five-horse timber-tug"

  3. 8
    A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.
  4. 9
    A dog toy consisting of a rope, often with a knot in it.
  5. 10
    An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.
  6. 11
    An act of male masturbation. slang

    "He had a quick tug to calm himself down before his date."

Verb
  1. 1
    To pull or drag with great effort. transitive

    "The police officers tugged the drunkard out of the pub."

  2. 2
    struggle in opposition wordnet
  3. 3
    To pull hard repeatedly. transitive

    "He lost his patience trying to undo his shoe-lace, but tugging it made the knot even tighter."

  4. 4
    pull hard wordnet
  5. 5
    To tow by tugboat. transitive
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    pull or strain hard at wordnet
  2. 7
    To masturbate. ambitransitive, slang
  3. 8
    move by pulling hard wordnet
  4. 9
    carry with difficulty wordnet
  5. 10
    tow (a vessel) with a tug wordnet
  6. 11
    strive and make an effort to reach a goal wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

Etymology 3

Related to toga.

See also for "tug"

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