Forms: 3 toggen, 4–6 togge; (6 tog, toug), 4–7 tugge, 5–8 (9 dial.) tugg; 5– tug. [Early ME. togg-en, intensive from weak grade of *teuhan, tauh, tuʓum, OE. téo(ha)n, téah, tuʓon, toʓen: see TEE v.1]
† 1. intr. To pull sportively, struggle amorously. Obs. rare.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 424. Heo ne schulen cussen nenne mon…. ne toggen mid him, ne pleien.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 14. Wið plohe speche sputte to mare, swa longe þat ha tollið togederes ant toggið.
2. To contend, strive in opposition. Now rare.
14[?]. Tourn. Tottenham, 199, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 91. Thus thai tuggut and thei ruggut til hit was nyȝt.
a. 1500. Dr. Doubble Ale, 148, ibid., III. 311. The sexton and he truly Did tog by the eares earnestly.
1598. Mucedorus, Epil. 28. Let us tugge, till one the mastrie winne.
1657. Burton’s Diary (1828), II. 255. I … came away, and left them tugging upon that debate.
1693. Dryden, Love Triumph., I. i. Fierce Ramirez, the Castilian king, Who tugged for empire with our warlike son.
1701. J. Sage, Vind. Cyprianic Age, Wks. 1847, II. 45. I have dared to tug a little with Gilbert Rule.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 602. Man tugs with man, and clubs with axes play.
1872. Le Fanu, In a Glass Darkly, III. 116. All her energies seemed strained to suppress a fit, with which she was then breathlessly tugging.
† b. Tug it out, to decide a matter by contest or debate; to ‘have it out’; also, to go through with a thing to the end. Obs.
1624. Heywood, Captives, I. ii., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. We’ll tugge it out by the teeth.
1648. in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 411. My Lord is resolved to go aboard this night and to tugge it out with any wind.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. iii. § 1. This tough old man, being 70. yeares of age, took a Journey to Rome, there to tugg it out with his Adversaries.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 319. The great courage of Cæsar reviv’d the poor spirited man and made him tug it out.
3. intr. To toil, labor, struggle; to go toilsomely, advance laboriously.
1619. Visct. Doncaster, in Eng. & Germ. (Camden), 46, I came … co Cologne … put myselfe into the boate … tugged up the river in five days to Francfort.
1634. Rainbow, Labour, 40. All for which you tugge thus diligently, shall perish.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 238. He was … deprived of all the Church lands … notwithstanding he tugged hard to keep some.
1719. Watts, Hymn, ‘My drowsy pow’rs, why sleep ye so,’ ii. The little ants for one poor grain Labour, and tug, and strive.
1860. Holland, Miss Gilbert, vi. To tug and tug all their lives to get money together.
1911. E. Sidgwick, Le Gentleman, x. He had … tugged up one great boulevard … and down another.
† b. trans. To acquire by toil or exertion. rare.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cccxciii. The Soldier tumbles what the owner Tugg’d.
c. To carry or convey (something ponderous) with difficulty or exertion; to lug, drag. colloq.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 231, ¶ 2. [He] then says to his Wife, Child, prithee take up the Saddle; which she readily did, and tugged it Home.
4. trans. To pull at with force; to strain or haul at.
13[?]. K. Alis., 2305. He hit toggid [Bodl. MS. tukked] out to habbe.
a. 1375. Lay Folks’ Mass Bk., App. iv. 314. Wiþ his teeþ he gon hit togge.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 495/2. Toggyn, or drawyn…, tractulo.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1883), 85. His here in despite torn and togged lyke a cur dogge.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1650. Those two massie Pillars … He tugg’d, he shook, till down they came.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., III. 153. In vain the Milk-maid tugs an empty Teat.
1711. Gay, Rural Sports, I. 154. He greedily sucks in the twining bait, And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 649. Each oar was tugged by five or six slaves.
† b. To pull about roughly; to touse, to maul.
1493. Festivall (W. de W., 1515), 102 b. His neyghbours … all to-bette this man & drewe hym and tugged hym in the worst maner that they coude.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1029/1. He himselfe was cruellie tugged and cast into a dich.
1600. Holland, Livy, VI. xvi. 227. Suffer ye your Knight and Defender, to be thus tugged, misused, and evill entreated by his adversaries?
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. i. 112. And I … So wearie with Disasters, tugg’d with Fortune.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xix. § 59. The slaine body of the vsurping Tyrant, all tugged, and torne.
c. To get into some condition by tugging. rare.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Mark i. 15. Tugged and haled into sondrye pieces.
† d. intr. for pass. Obs. rare.
1568. Satir. Poems Reform., xlviii. 40. It [cloth] tuggis in hoilis, and gais abbreid.
† e. fig. Tug out, to go through with a struggle to the end; to drag out. Obs. rare–1.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 617. Hauing beene Earle of Oxford full fifty yeares; a long time to tugge out, in the troublesome raignes of so many kings.
5. To move by pulling forcibly; to pull with great exertion or difficulty; to drag, haul. Also fig.
c. 1320. R. Brunne, Medit., 441. Some tugge [v.r. tugge him], sum drawe [v.r. drawe him] fro ce to ce.
1406. Hoccleve, Misrule, 197. Ther the bootmen took vp-on me keep … With hem was I I-tugged to and fro.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 97 b. With all abieccyon haled and tugged from place to place.
1659. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 308. The debate was thus tugged to and again till one o’clock.
1715. J. Chappelow, Rt. Way Rich (1717), 142. Orten sin tuggs him down.
1730. Pope, Lett. to Gay, 11 Sept. I am tugg’d back to the world and its regards too often.
1840. Macaulay, Ess., Clive (1887), 547. Fifty pieces of ordnance of the largest size, each tugged by a long team of white oxen.
1877. W. R. Cooper, Egyptian Obelisks, viii. (1878), 35. Three hundred rowers tugged the huge trireme with its ponderous burden across the waters of the Mediterranean.
6. intr. To pull with great effort or force; to drag, haul. Often with at.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 9286. With hys teþe he gan to drawe, And harde for to tugge and gnawe.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 69. And evir the cuschettis at him tuggit, The rukis him rent, the ravynis him druggit.
c. 1613. Middleton, No Wit like Woman’s, II. iii. The streams of fortune, ’gainst which he tugs in vain.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 51. The Men tugged stoutly at their Paddles.
a. 1721. Prior, Dial. betw. Locke & Montaigne, 381. If you are always tugging at your Purse Strings, you may chance to break them.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XII. 485. Sarpedon … with both hands Tugg’d, and down fell the battlement entire.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xvii. Tugging at her pocket to get out the package.
b. In phrase to tug at the (an) oar, to row as a galley-slave; hence fig. to toil unremittingly; to labor in a subordinate capacity; to do the drudgery. Cf. OAR sb. 1 b.
1612. Dekker, If it be not Good, Wks. 1873, III. 265. Hels drudge, her Gally-slaue. I ha’ wore My flesh to th’ bones … at the Oare Tugging.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 295. We must sit here … and tug at the Oar, while they steer which way they please.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Author’s Apol., 21. Oh! ’Tis a service irksome more Than tugging at the slavish oar.
1875. McLaren, Serm., Ser. II. viii. 145. Kept him tugging away all his life at the oar, administering the affairs of a Kingdom.
c. transf. and fig.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 103. Tugging at a large Rummer of Rhenish and Sugar.
1833. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Loire, 79. How many recollections tugged at his heart as he went on!
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Consid., Wks. (Bohn), II. 426. All sensible people are selfish, and nature is tugging at every contract to make the terms of it fair.
d. The verb-stem used adverbially.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, viii. Tug came both Mrs. Brady’s hands through his hair.
7. trans. [f. TUG sb. 6.] To tow by means of a steam-tug.
1839. J. M. W. Turner (title of painting), The Fighting Téméraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up.
