TUGGED Synonyms: 112 Similar and Opposite Words

tugged

verb

past tense of tug

as in pulled

to cause to follow by applying steady force on tugged on the door until it opened

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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

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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 tugged The wind tugged and shook the bomber, but the pilot held her steady. — Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2026 But already the thought tugged at me that the scales that had turned were not celestial, but legal, the workings of the same system condemned in the camp as corrupt and broken. — J. B. MacKinnon, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026 In the first half especially, the away team tugged Arsenal around, and might easily have built upon that early Rogers goal. — Jack Lang, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026 The late night host tugged at her sleeve cutout to get a look at the ink. — Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 27 Aug. 2026 The seas have been kind, or at least kinder than expected, to SpaceX's Starship spacecraft, as it's been tugged through the Indian Ocean to friendlier tides. — Josh Dinner, Space.com, 18 Aug. 2026 Hicks broke up a Mahomes pass to Noah Gray, but Hicks could have tugged Gray before making the play. — Pete Sweeney, Kansas City Star, 11 Aug. 2026 The incident appeared to have tugged on something much deeper. — Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2026 Meanwhile, other storylines were timely and tugged at heartstrings, such as when her character officiated the first gay male wedding on daytime TV in a 2014 episode following Marlena’s emotional coming-out scenes with her grandson. — Jeff Nelson, PEOPLE, 29 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tugged

Verb

Shohei Ohtani emerged from the visiting dugout at American Family Field with a bat in his hand, and the mass of media members scattered in foul territory up the third-base line shifted his way, pulled by the magnetic force that is Ohtani’s stardom.

— Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
On Wednesday, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republicans' super PAC, effectively dropped its push to boost Tijerina and pulled millions of dollars in ads from the district, a person familiar with the decision confirmed.

— Justin Papp, CNBC, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of pulled

Verb

However, with five minutes left in regulation and Penn State threatening to score, Becht was hauled down while scrambling and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Michigan.

— Matt Reigle OutKick, FOXNews.com, 18 Oct. 2026
After a brief exchange, officers hauled him into a police vehicle and drove away.

— Sheikh Saaliq, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of hauled

Verb

Democratic politicians, bureaucrats and labor leaders, once rabble-rousers like Bass who nowadays seem to exist mostly to keep their sinecure, have labored mightily to convince unbelieving voters that Bass deserves another shot.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
The circumstances of Saint Michael’s help while the pilgrim labored and delivered in the ocean were markedly different from those in the miracle ascribed to the Virgin.

— Ellen O’Connell Whittet, Literary Hub, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of labored

Verb

That pushes marketers toward ideas that have worked before, which is why, Smith says, so many ads look alike.

— Sam Birchall, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026
To crack the uncrackable, Rittmann’s team worked alongside collaborators from Rice University, Tongji University, the National University of Singapore, and Nanjing University.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of worked

Verb

Though eventually abandoned due to cost, this system of surveillance endeavored to equate producers with virtue.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
Whatever people think of the film, it was endeavored to be made with purely with the process at its heart.

— Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of endeavored

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tugboats

tugged

tugging

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“Tugged.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tugged. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of tugged

verb

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