tug

tug is a 3-letter English word with 18 senses as transitive verb, intransitive verb, noun, and verb in the JumbleFix dictionary. One common meaning is: To pull or draw with great effort; to draw along with continued exertion; to haul along; to tow; as, to tug a loaded cart; to tug a ship into port. Face value is 4 in Scrabble and 6 in Words With Friends. Use the entries below when you need a playable sense, a nearby word, or another arrangement of the same letters.

3 letters · Scrabble 4 · Words With Friends 6 · 18 senses

Definitions

1. transitive verb. To pull or draw with great effort; to draw along with continued exertion; to haul along; to tow; as, to tug a loaded cart; to tug a ship into port.
2. transitive verb. To pull; to pluck.
3. intransitive verb. To pull with great effort; to strain in labor; as, to tug at the oar; to tug against the stream.
4. intransitive verb. To labor; to strive; to struggle.
5. noun. A pull with the utmost effort, as in the athletic contest called tug of war; a supreme effort.
6. noun. A sort of vehicle, used for conveying timber and heavy articles.
7. noun. A small, powerful steamboat used to tow vessels; -- called also steam tug, tugboat, and towboat.
8. noun. A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.
9. noun. An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.
10. noun. a sudden abrupt pull

    Synonyms: jerk

11. noun. a powerful small boat designed to pull or push larger ships

    Synonyms: towboat, tower, tugboat

12. verb. struggle in opposition

    "She tugged and wrestled with her conflicts"

13. verb. pull hard

    "The prisoner tugged at the chains"

    "This movie tugs at the heart strings"

14. verb. pull or strain hard at

    "Each oar was tugged by several men"

15. verb. move by pulling hard

    "The horse finally tugged the cart out of the mud"

16. verb. carry with difficulty

    "You'll have to lug this suitcase"

    Synonyms: lug, tote

17. verb. tow (a vessel) with a tug

    "The tugboat tugged the freighter into the harbor"

18. verb. strive and make an effort to reach a goal

    "She tugged for years to make a decent living"

    "We have to push a little to make the deadline!"

    Synonyms: drive, labor, labour, push

Synonyms

jerk, towboat, tower, tugboat, lug, tote, drive, labor, labour, push

Anagrams

Other playable words that use exactly the letters in tug:

gut, ugt

Common word forms

tugs, tugged, tugger, tugging, tugless

Words from these letters

If you are holding these tiles, the unscrambler for TUG lists every valid word you can make from the same letters, including shorter plays.