tugs

Noun

tug (plural tugs)

1. A sudden powerful pull.
   • 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, […], →OCLC
2. 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.1950 July, J. C. Mertens, “By the "Taurus Express" to Baghdad”, in Railway Magazine, page 435
3. 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...2025 August 20, Paul Clifton, “Ro Ro Rail takes the freight train to Spain”, in RAIL, number 1042, page 49
4. (obsolete) A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles.
   • Cattiwi came down the steep lane with his five-horse timber-tug1910, Rudyard Kipling, Simple Simon
5. A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.
6. A dog toy consisting of a rope, often with a knot in it.

See all 13 meanings of tug