tug

verb

1. (transitive)To pull or drag with great effort.

   “The police officers tugged the drunkard out of the pub.”

2. (transitive)To pull hard repeatedly.

   “He lost his patience trying to undo his shoe-lace, but tugging it made the knot even tighter.”

3. (transitive)To tow by tugboat.
4. (ambitransitive, slang)To masturbate.

noun

1. A sudden powerful pull.

   “At the tug he falls, / Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.”

   “Even though the authors note that they have not "exhausted the subject of San Francisco's queer history," the hope is that enough of "us" outside the Bay Area will find something of ourselves represented in the book and will feel that tug of connection to and solidarity with the gay capital's community.”

   “But Van Persie slotted home 40 seconds after the break before David Wheater saw red for a tug on Theo Walcott.”

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.”

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 rail wagon holds two lorry trailers and features a new 'pivoting pocket' which moves through 45° to allow the tug to push the trailer onto the wagon from alongside.”

4. (obsolete)A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles.

   “Cattiwi came down the steep lane with his five-horse timber-tug”

5. A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.
6. A dog toy consisting of a rope, often with a knot in it.
7. An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.
8. (slang)An act of male masturbation.

   “He had a quick tug to calm himself down before his date.”

9. (UK, slang)A foundationer or colleger at Eton.