tug

Preposition: on

• heartstrings: At the same time Dobson is quite prepared to use Blair's patronage to tug on the heartstrings of Labor voters.
• rope: By making a series of tugs on the rope, the diver can communicate at a basic level with the surface diver.

Preposition: at

• heartstrings: Some of these scenes - especially the ones involving the children - really tug at the heartstrings.
• string: The music is stirring and tugs at the heart strings.

Converse of subject

• tow: She set out with 29 hands from Cardiff for Bombay with coals, initially being towed by two tugs.

Converse of object

• feel: Almost immediately I felt the sharp biting tugs from the waiting fish.

Adjective modifier

• ocean-going: My great-uncle, Captain Henry MacKenzie, used to tow the whale catching boats with his ocean-going tug ' Forager ' .
• gravitational: At the great distances of the Oort Cloud, comets can be affected by the gentle gravitational tugs of nearby passing stars.
• sharp: Remove them with a sharp upwards tug, you can place your fingers on the gravel to prevent the bulbs being pulled up.
• gentle: With a gentle tug you can then remove the bottom case of the iMac.
• slight: When a slight tug on the cable fully engaged our hapless driver's brakes he didn't even notice.
• electric: Early in 2001 BW were testing taking trains of boats through Standedge Tunnel using electric tugs.

Modifies a noun

• boat: Only the intervention of the tug boat pilots saved the Titanic from serious harm.

Noun used with modifier

• salvage: Orkney and Shetland are to get all year round salvage tug cover from next year.
• paddle: A powerful paddle steam tug, Conqueror, tried to haul Europa free.
• steam: By the lock is a steam tug, see detail below.
• harbor: The Rozi was a 40 meter harbor tug deliberately sunk in 1991 as an attraction for the operators of glass-bottomed boats.
• rescue: More distressing news came from the skipper of the rescue tug.

Preposition: of

• war: A sort of childish ' can can't ' verbal tug of war ensued, neither of us being the winner.
• rope: A pull is a long tug of the rope, whereas a bell is a short, sharp tug of the rope.