The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present tugs, present participle tugging, simple past and past participle tugged
(transitive) To pull or drag with great effort. examples
(transitive) To pull hard repeatedly. examples
(transitive) To tow by tugboat. examples
(slang, transitive, intransitive) To masturbate.
plural tugs
A sudden powerful pull. quotations examples
At the tug he falls, / Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.
1697, Virgil, “The Eleventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
But Van Persie slotted home 40 seconds after the break before David Wheater saw red for a tug on Theo Walcott.
2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport
(nautical) A tugboat. quotations examples
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.
1950 July, J. C. Mertens, “By the "Taurus Express" to Baghdad”, in Railway Magazine, page 435
(obsolete) A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles. quotations
Cattiwi came down the steep lane with his five-horse timber-tug
1910, Rudyard Kipling, Simple Simon
A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness. examples
A dog toy consisting of a rope, often with a knot in it. examples
(mining) An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed. examples
(slang) An act of male masturbation.