a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition; "he was here for a little while"; "I need to rest for a piece"; "a spell of good weather"; "a patch of bad weather"
the act of drilling a hole in the earth in the hope of producing petroleum
so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; "a boring evening with uninteresting people"; "the deadening effect of some routine tasks"; "a dull play"; "his competent but dull performance"; "a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention"; "what an irksome task the writing of long letters is"- Edmund Burke; "tedious days on the train"; "the tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain; "other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome"
struggle in opposition; "She tugged and wrestled with her conflicts"
pull hard; "The prisoner tugged at the chains"; "This movie tugs at the heart strings"
pull or strain hard at; "Each oar was tugged by several men"
move by pulling hard; "The horse finally tugged the cart out of the mud"
tow (a vessel) with a tug; "The tugboat tugged the freighter into the harbor"
strive and make an effort to reach a goal; "She tugged for years to make a decent living"; "We have to push a little to make the deadline!"; "She is driving away at her doctoral thesis"
having existence or being or actuality; "an attempt to refine the existent machinery to make it more efficient"; "much of the beluga caviar existing in the world is found in the Soviet Union and Iran"