Literary notes about pulled (AI summary)
The term “pulled” in literature conveys a surprising range of physical and metaphorical actions, from the literal act of moving objects or oneself to subtler emotional shifts and abrupt reactions. Authors use it to depict strenuous labor or swift motion, as when a log is dragged along rough roads [1] or when a character hastily pulls someone to safety [2]. At other times it signals extraction or removal, whether pulling out a handkerchief in a moment of distress [3] or tugging a piece of clothing away [4, 5]. The word also lends itself to figurative descriptions; a character’s features might be “pulled down” into an expression of sorrow [6], or a situation may unravel when someone’s pride is effectively “pulled down” [7]. In this way, “pulled” serves as a versatile device that helps to vividly animate both concrete actions and the more elusive shifts of mood and circumstance.
- The transporting of the log is not an easy task, as it has to be taken out of the uneven, rocky raybwag , and then pulled along very bad roads.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - She hurriedly got up, curtseyed, and pulled Seryozha.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - He clattered all his means and implements together, rose from his chair, pulled out his pocket-handkerchief, and burst into tears.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - That is a big thorn that I have pulled out!”
— from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - His hand pulled hers gently and he turned his tired eyes on her appealingly.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - His round, ruddy face was naturally full of cheeriness, but the corners of his mouth seemed to me to be pulled down in a half-comical distress.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Surely I have now pulled down your pride enough.”
— from The Fables of Phædrus by Phaedrus
