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Tug vs Tear - What's the difference?

tug | tear |

In lang=en terms the difference between tug and tear

is that tug is to tow by tugboat while tear is to produce tears.

As verbs the difference between tug and tear

is that tug is to pull or drag with great effort while tear is to rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate or tear can be to produce tears.

As nouns the difference between tug and tear

is that tug is a sudden powerful pull while tear is a hole or break caused by tearing or tear can be a drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.

tug

English

Verb

(tugg)
  • to pull or drag with great effort
  • The police officers tugged the drunkard out of the pub.
  • to pull hard repeatedly
  • He lost his patience trying to undo his shoe-lace, but tugging it made the knot even tighter.
  • to tow by tugboat
  • Derived terms

    * tug down * tug up

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a sudden powerful pull
  • * Dryden
  • At the tug he falls, / Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking walls.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 24 , author=David Ornstein , title=Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But Van Persie slotted home 40 seconds after the break before David Wheater saw red for a tug on Theo Walcott.}}
  • (nautical) a tugboat
  • (obsolete) A kind of vehicle used for conveying timber and heavy articles.
  • (Halliwell)
  • A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness.
  • (mining) An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed.
  • (slang) An act of masturbation
  • He had a quick tug to calm himself down before his date.

    Derived terms

    * tug of war

    Anagrams

    * ----

    tear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.
  • To injure as if by pulling apart.
  • To cause to lose some kind of unity or coherence.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.}}
  • To make (an opening) with force or energy.
  • To remove by tearing.
  • To demolish
  • To become torn, especially accidentally.
  • To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
  • To smash or enter something with great force.
  • Synonyms
    * (break) rend, rip * (remove by tearing) rip out, tear off, tear out

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hole or break caused by tearing.
  • A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
    Derived terms
    * wear and tear

    Derived terms

    * tearsheet

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia tear) (en noun)
  • A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
  • * Dryden
  • Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears .
  • That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
  • * Milton
  • some melodious tear
    Derived terms
    {{der3 , crocodile tears , shed a tear , teardrop , tear duct , tearful , tear up , teary , two tears in a bucket }}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To produce tears.
  • Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.