# wrestle

Pronunciation: say "RES-uhl" US /ˈɹɛs(ə)l/, UK /ˈɹɛsl̩/

## Verb

1. To grapple or struggle with an opponent, trying to throw them or force them down, mainly as a sport or in unarmed fighting.
   - Simple: To hold and push someone to get them onto the ground, often as a sport or in a fight.
   - _The two cousins would wrestle with each other on the lawn until one of them was pinned._
   - _He wrestled at 152 pounds throughout college._
2. To struggle or contend against or with someone or something, striving with great effort.
   - Simple: To try very hard to deal with or fight against something difficult.
   - _Small farming towns wrestle against the steady loss of their young people to the cities._
   - _She wrestled with her conscience for weeks before reporting the fraud._
3. To grapple with someone, sometimes forcing them down, so as to move them into or out of a position or to overcome them.
   - Simple: To grab and push someone to move them, sometimes down to the ground, or to win against them.
   - _Police officers had to wrestle the suspect down before they could handcuff him._
   - _The defender got a yellow card after he wrestled the striker to the ground in the box._
4. To move or handle something with physical effort, usually against some difficulty or resistance.
   - Simple: To move or handle something using a lot of strength, often because it is hard to do.
   - _It took two of us to wrestle the old refrigerator through the back door._
   - _Still half asleep, he wrestled his arms into a heavy winter coat._
5. To struggle physically with something, moving or handling it with effort, usually against some difficulty or resistance.
   - Simple: To struggle with something, using your strength to move or control it.
   - _Two of us had to wrestle with the stubborn horse to get it into the trailer._
   - _She spent ten minutes wrestling with the jammed zipper on her jacket._
6. To compete in a wrestling bout or match.
   - Simple: To fight in a wrestling match or round.
   - _Each athlete must wrestle at least three bouts to reach the final._
   - _He wrestled his last match with a taped-up shoulder._
7. To push one's way along or move with difficulty or effort.
   - Simple: To move or get somewhere with a lot of effort.
   - _Every morning, commuters wrestle through the packed station to reach their trains._
   - _The little ferry wrestled through heavy seas for six hours before reaching port._
11. To throw a calf or other livestock animal to the ground so that it can be branded. *(dialectal, US, Western)*
   - Simple: To get a calf or other farm animal down on the ground so it can be branded.
   - _Neighbors from three ranches came to rope and wrestle calves at the spring branding._
   - _Two cowhands wrestled the bawling calf down while a third pressed the iron to its hip._

## Noun

8. A fight in which people grapple or struggle with each other, each trying to throw or force the other to the ground, mainly as a sport or in unarmed combat.
   - Simple: A fight, often for sport, where people hold and push to get each other onto the ground.
   - _The match ended after a fierce wrestle near the edge of the mat._
   - _Their friendly wrestles on the lawn usually ended with someone in tears._
9. A contest or struggle in which people compete with one another.
   - Simple: A time when people try hard to beat each other.
   - _The boardroom wrestle for control of the company dragged on for months._
   - _After a long wrestle between the two candidates, the vote came down to a few hundred ballots._
10. The act of struggling or contending, in a physical or figurative sense.
   - Simple: The act of fighting or struggling.

## Verb

12. To give one's close attention to a task or similar matter, or to deal with it. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To spend time working carefully on a task, or to deal with it.
13. To contend in words, as in an argument, debate, or dispute. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To argue or disagree with someone using words.
   - _In the debate the two candidates wrestle for an hour over taxes, and neither gives an inch._
   - _At every faculty meeting, the two professors wrestled loudly over the meaning of a single clause._
14. To twist and turn about; to wriggle or writhe. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To twist and turn from side to side.
   - _Below the falls, the dark water seems to wrestle around every rock._
   - _Gray smoke wrestled up from the chimney in slow, heavy coils._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To engage in a contest or struggle as if in a wrestling bout.

## Origin

From Middle English wrestlen or wrastlen ("to grapple, struggle, wrestle; to twist and turn"), from Old English wrǣstlian ("to wrestle"), a frequentative form of wrǣstan ("to twist, wrest"), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- ("to twist"), so it can be read as wrest + -le. It is probably related to the dialectal wraxle and has cognates in Dutch worstelen, Middle Low German wrostelen, Saterland Frisian wrosselje and West Frisian wrakselje. The noun comes from the verb.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wrestle (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).