YANKING Synonyms: 60 Similar and Opposite Words

yanking

verb

present participle of yank

as in jerking

to move or cause to move with a sharp quick motion she stupidly yanked the wheel while I was driving

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in pulling

to draw out by force or with effort yanked out a tooth with a pair of pliers

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in grabbing

to separate or remove by forceful pulling grab the other one, and let's see if we can't yank these two grocery carriages apart

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

reattaching

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of yanking The episode feinted toward genuine rapprochement before yanking the rug out, leaving the Gang pelted with an industrial-grade indoor blizzard and then happily chucking rocks at passing trains, as was Mac and Charlie’s childhood tradition. — Dennis Perkins, Entertainment Weekly, 28 July 2026 The tentacular Scylla is seen briefly but makes an impact, yanking sailors off Odysseus’s ship in a series of loud jump scares. — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 16 July 2026 Pinned beneath her rotting legs in his recliner chair, Loftis narrowly escapes by yanking its lever, catapulting the hag over his head. — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 15 July 2026 Video also showed the man climbing onto the roof of the car and yanking pieces of the LiDAR sensor that sits on the roof of Waymo cars and helps the vehicles map and navigate. — Los Angeles Times, 13 July 2026 Haaland’s winning goal came after another bout of yanking and pulling; the striker tried to free himself by slapping the defender’s arm away, eventually just carrying on regardless. — Jack Lang, New York Times, 5 July 2026 Now, with the federal and state government yanking back plenty of that funding and directly barring the city from enacting some of its more aggressive climate plans, Higgins is left with a narrow road to tread toward progress. — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 1 July 2026 The virtual oar-yanking celebration in a baseball atmosphere was one of those weird juxtapositions that seem to get fostered whenever a World Cup fanbase descends upon a host city. — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 26 June 2026 Keep the movement coming from your ribs, rotating, not by yanking your neck. — Jakob Roze, Health, 23 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for yanking

Verb

Stuttering lines, on the left, jerking up and down, denote the rattle of guns; on the right, the lines are all but flat, as silence descends.

— Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
Logan Howlett, got a tear-jerking send-off in James Mangold’s Logan.

— Brianna Zigler, Entertainment Weekly, 27 July 2026

Definition of jerking

Verb

Why TikTok livestream selling can drive big sales Three forces are pulling sellers toward livestream commerce, and Duplantis’s numbers reflect all of them.

— Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 30 Aug. 2026
Wildfire risk is pushing insurers to underwrite hotels based on physical resilience rather than location alone, and carriers are pulling back from some markets entirely.

— Josipa Majic Predin, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of pulling

Verb

Two men bought tickets to enter Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) before smashing a display case, grabbing a 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace and walking away, police said Friday.

— CBS News, CBS News, 28 Aug. 2026
In the commercial, Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark rushes over to his golf bag and pushes over golfer Alexis Miestowski to keep her from grabbing the Quantum Driver.

— Andrew Greif, NBC news, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of grabbing

Verb

Spanning 42 feet long and more than 14 feet wide, the observatory is designed to explore the outer solar system and beyond – prying into previously unobservable areas of the universe to study dark energy and search for exoplanets.

— Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
This is an uncomplicated yarn about a man prying open his heart and nudging other hard nuts to do the same.

— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of prying

Verb

Thompson, who is preparing for his 14th NBA season, is a different player at this point of his NBA career after tearing his ACL in 2019 and then rupturing his Achilles in 2020.

— Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 27 Aug. 2026
Those include a major makeover for the first floor, including tearing out the stage to make space for a brewery.

— Steve Zalusky, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of tearing

Verb

Teams earned points by winning weekly head-to-head battles – tugging a sled across the field the fastest, surviving a heated game of dodgeball – and by simply doing the right thing.

— Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026
Other players rushed to the scene, with linebacker Dre Greenlaw tugging right tackle Colton McKivitz to the ground, prompting fullback Kyle Juszczyk to enter the fray and a dogpile ensued.

— Cam Inman, Mercury News, 31 July 2026

Definition of tugging

Verb

Against that backdrop, Pina’s speech asserted the platform should be regarded as a partner to television, rather than a tech giant extracting audiences and value from it.

— Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 26 Aug. 2026
Lynn was reluctant to take credit for extracting the performance from Curry.

— Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of extracting

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“Yanking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/yanking. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of yanking

verb

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