Library / English Dictionary

WRESTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat

Example:

we watched his grappling and wrestling with the bully

Synonyms:

grapple; grappling; hand-to-hand struggle; wrestle; wrestling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("wrestle" is a kind of...):

struggle (strenuous effort)

Derivation:

wrestle (engage in a wrestling match)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Engage in deep thought, consideration, or debate

Example:

I wrestled with this decision for years

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "wrestle" is one way to...):

consider; debate; deliberate; moot; turn over (think about carefully; weigh)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

Sam wants to wrestle with Sue

Sense 2

Meaning:

Combat to overcome an opposing tendency or force

Example:

He wrestled all his life with his feeling of inferiority

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "wrestle" is one way to...):

battle; combat (battle or contend against in or as if in a battle)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

wrestler (combatant who tries to throw opponent to the ground)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage in a wrestling match

Example:

The children wrestled in the garden

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "wrestle" is one way to...):

contend; fight; struggle (be engaged in a fight; carry on a fight)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wrestle"):

mud-wrestle; mudwrestle (wrestle in mud)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

wrestle (the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat)

wrestling (the sport of hand-to-hand struggle between unarmed contestants who try to throw each other down)

wrestling (the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat)

Sense 4

Meaning:

To move in a twisting or contorted motion, (especially when struggling)

Example:

The child tried to wriggle free from his aunt's embrace

Synonyms:

squirm; twist; worm; wrestle; wriggle; writhe

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "wrestle" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wrestle"):

wrench (make a sudden twisting motion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

So Meg wrestled alone with the refractory sweetmeats all that hot summer day, and at five o'clock sat down in her topsy-turvey kitchen, wrung her bedaubed hands, lifted up her voice and wept.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Mr. Micawber kissed her hand, retired to the window, and pulling out his pocket-handkerchief, had a mental wrestle with himself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Not I,” quoth the archer, pulling on his clothes, “I have come well out of the business. I would sooner wrestle with the great bear of Navarre.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I taught him his exercises, for he never loved the sight of a book, and he in turn made me box and wrestle, tickle trout on the Adur, and snare rabbits on Ditching Down, for his hands were as active as his brain was slow.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nothing angered and mortified me so much as the queen’s dwarf; who being of the lowest stature that was ever in that country (for I verily think he was not full thirty feet high), became so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him, that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me in the queen’s antechamber, while I was standing on some table talking with the lords or ladies of the court, and he seldom failed of a smart word or two upon my littleness; against which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother, challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually in the mouths of court pages.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His plan was to get it accepted by one of the high magazines, and, thus armed, again to wrestle with Brissenden for consent.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In the prayer following the chapter, all his energy gathered—all his stern zeal woke: he was in deep earnest, wrestling with God, and resolved on a conquest.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Buck rushed at the splintering wood, sinking his teeth into it, surging and wrestling with it.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The strong men and the bowmen of the country round used to drop in there of an evening to wrestle a fall with John or to shoot a round with Aylward; but, though a silver shilling was to be the prize of the victory, it has never been reported that any man earned much money in that fashion.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While Amy dressed, she issued her orders, and Jo obeyed them, not without entering her protest, however, for she sighed as she rustled into her new organdie, frowned darkly at herself as she tied her bonnet strings in an irreproachable bow, wrestled viciously with pins as she put on her collar, wrinkled up her features generally as she shook out the handkerchief, whose embroidery was as irritating to her nose as the present mission was to her feelings, and when she had squeezed her hands into tight gloves with three buttons and a tassel, as the last touch of elegance, she turned to Amy with an imbecile expression of countenance, saying meekly...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)