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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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 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

Our shopping editors have done the wandering for you and pulled the furniture deals worth acting on before midnight, with some marked down by more than 50%.

— Audrey Lee, Architectural Digest, 7 Oct. 2026
Nick Pivetta yielded two runs and five hits while pitching into the fifth for the Padres, and Dustin May got pulled abruptly with a 1-0 count on Bogaerts and a runner aboard in the fourth.

— ABC News, ABC News, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of pulled

Verb

Every chip and solar panel has to be hauled into orbit, and every answer those chips produce has to come back down.

— Peter Hall, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2026
In a humiliating ritual, the assistant manager was marched out the door, hauled downtown for an interrogation, and accused of a despicable crime.

— Kate Payne, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026

Definition of hauled

Verb

Jaylen Wright labored all week, fighting his way back from a foot injury that sidelined him the previous game.

— Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 5 Oct. 2026
With the Dodgers’ lead cut to one run, Skubal labored through the rest of the sixth inning, issuing a pair of walks, his first of the game.

— Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2026

Definition of labored

Verb

Students sitting with arms linked at the elbows could only see in shards through a picket of shin guards, restricting their view of the area where classmates and roommates were dragged one by one and zip-tied face down on the spring grass.

— Sophie Landres, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026
As Findley dragged the driver from the truck, Deputy Chase Blatt, driving north on I-35, saw the fire and the driver being pulled from the truck.

— Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 30 Sep. 2026

Definition of dragged

Verb

According to court filings, Seaver previously worked for private military contractors and later provided security for Parton and her properties through his company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services (SAPS), which is also a party to the lawsuit.

— Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 6 Oct. 2026
Room for Disagreement Collins has opposed Trump on upwards of a half-dozen major initiatives and worked behind the scenes to temper him on multiple other occasions.

— Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 6 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

Browse Nearby Words

tugboats

tugged

tugging

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“Tugged.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tugged. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of tugged

verb

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