tow vs tug

tow

noun
  • Something, such as a tugboat, that tows. 

  • The short, coarse, less desirable fibres separated by hackling from the finer longer fibres (line). 

  • Something, such as a barge, that is towed. 

  • The act of towing and the condition of being towed. 

  • A rope or cable used in towing. 

  • A speed increase given by driving in front of another car on a straight, which causes a slipstream for the car behind. 

  • An untwisted bundle of fibres such as cellulose acetate, flax, hemp or jute. 

verb
  • To aid someone behind by shielding them from wind resistance. 

  • To pull something behind one using a line or chain; to haul. 

tug

noun
  • A tugboat. 

  • A dog toy consisting of a rope, often with a knot in it. 

  • A trace, or drawing strap, of a harness. 

  • An iron hook of a hoisting tub, to which a tackle is affixed. 

  • A sudden powerful pull. 

  • An act of male masturbation. 

verb
  • To masturbate. 

  • To tow by tugboat. 

  • To pull or drag with great effort. 

  • To pull hard repeatedly. 

How often have the words tow and tug occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )