struggles

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of struggle.

   She struggles to keep her composure during tense negotiations.

   The local economy struggles under the weight of rising debt.

   Note

   Prepositions decide which kind of effort is meant. She struggles with algebra means difficulty. A country struggles for independence, or against a rival, means contention. A trapped animal struggles with its whole body. Followed by to and a verb, as in struggles to keep her composure, it frames an action as carried out against resistance rather than with ease.

   He struggles with long division but loves geometry.

   The colony struggles for independence against a distant crown.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of struggle.

   The memoir details the struggles of immigrant families in the early 1900s.

   Personal struggles often shape a person's deepest values.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs: the same letters serve as the verb's present tense, and only the surrounding words tell them apart. Her struggles is a noun; she struggles is a verb. As a plural it can count bodily efforts, like writhing to get free, but it readily carries the figurative sense of strife and hardship, usually with a possessive: their struggles, a nation's struggles.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2