strive

Formsstrives, striving, strove, striven

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To make a strenuous effort to achieve a result, trying earnestly and persistently.

   Young athletes strive to improve their times with each race.

   He strove for years to finish writing his first novel.

   Similarseek, pursue

   Oppositecoast, slack

   Note

   The effort sense, and the one the word's history points to: Middle English striven came through Old French estriver, "to compete, quarrel," from a Frankish verb meaning "to exert, make an effort." It takes to plus a verb (strove to excel) or for plus a goal (strive for the truth). The past is strove or strived, and the past participle is striven or strived. Christian Wolmar still writes strove in 2021.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To struggle against an opponent; to be in conflict, dispute, or contention.

   Reformers strive against entrenched corruption in the government.

   The early settlers strove against a harsh climate to survive.

   Similarstruggle, fight, battle, contend, wrestle

   Oppositeyield, submit, surrender

   Note

   Here the effort meets resistance, and the prepositions change. One strives against fate or an invading army, or strives with an opposing force, as when John Denham wrote in 1668 that "private pity strove with public hate." The Old French "quarrel" in the word's ancestry surfaces here. Against and with signal this meaning, while to and for signal plain earnest effort.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To compete as a rival; to vie with others for a prize, position, or advantage.

   Three companies strive for control of the new market.

   Candidates strove to win the party's nomination.

   Similarcompete, vie, contend, battle, jockey

   Oppositecooperate, collaborate

   Note

   Rivalry rather than hostility: things strive with each other the way contenders do, measured side by side. Milton, in Paradise Lost (1667), says no grove of Daphne "might with this paradise / Of Eden strive." That is a contest of excellence, not a fight. The construction strive with is shared with the "contend" meaning, so context decides whether the contest is a quarrel or a race.

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