struggle
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈstɹʌɡəl//
- United Kingdom/[ˈstɹʌɡl̩]/
A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
noun
- 1
A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
- 2
figurativeStrife, contention, great effort.
The struggle with ways and means had recommenced, more difficult now a hundredfold than it had been before, because of their increasing needs. Their income disappeared as a little rivulet that is swallowed by the thirsty ground. He worked night and day to supplement it.
R. Moskowitz charges cisgender readers to be as conscious and deliberate with our religious identities as transgender and gender non-conforming people are with theirs, arguing that holiness is only achieved through continuous and unrelenting struggle and change.
Etymology
From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin; perhaps from a variant of *strokelen, *stroukelen (> English stroll), from Middle Dutch struyckelen ("to stumble, trip, falter"; > Modern Dutch struikelen), the frequentative form of Old Dutch *strūkon (“to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *strūkōną, *strūkēną (“to be stiff”), from Proto-Indo-European *strug-, *ster- (“to be stiff; to bristle, strut, stumble, fall”), Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Also related to Middle Low German strûkelen ("to stumble"; > Low German strükeln), Old High German strūhhēn, strūhhōn ("to stumble, trip, tumble, go astray"; > German strauchen, straucheln). Alternative etymology derives the base of struggle from Old Norse strúgr (“arrogance, pride, spitefulness, ill-will”) + -le (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *strūkaz (“stiff, rigid”), ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European root above, which would make it cognate with dialectal Swedish strug (“contention, strife, discord”), Norwegian stru (“obstinate, unruly”), Danish struende (“reluctantly”), Scots strug (“difficulty, perplexity, a laborious task”).
verb
- 1
To strive, to labour in difficulty, to fight (for or against), to contend.
During the centuries, the people of Ireland struggled constantly to assert their right to govern themselves.
Troutbeck is a tiny village midway between Penrith and Keswick in a very sparsely populated part of Cumberland, and it used to be said by facetious travellers that the reason why it ever had a station at all was to give the engine a rest after it had struggled up the long and trying incline from Threlkeld.
England were ponderous with ball in hand, their runners static when taking the ball and their lines obvious, while their front row struggled badly in the scrum.
Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.
- 2
To have difficulty with something.
One of the doctor’s patients struggled with depression.
Then our first effort must be to identify the actual words. Only after recognizing them individually can we begin to try to understand them, to struggle with perceiving what they mean.
- 3
To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.
She struggled to escape from her assailant's grasp.
Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
Forms
- plural
- struggles
- past tense
- struggled
- past participle
- struggled
- present participle
- struggling
- third person singular
- struggles
struggle · A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
struggling · The act of one who struggles.strut · Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with…Stu · A diminutive of the male given name Stuart.