tug of war

American  

noun

1. an athletic contest between two teams at opposite ends of a rope, each team trying to drag the other over a line.

2. a hard-fought, critical struggle for supremacy.

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tug-of-war British  

noun

1. a contest in which two people or teams pull opposite ends of a rope in an attempt to drag the opposition over a central line

2. any hard struggle, esp between two equally matched factions

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tug of war Idioms  

1. A struggle for supremacy, as in There's a constant political tug of war between those who favor giving more power to the states and those who want a strong federal government. Although there is an athletic contest also so named, in which participants holding either end of a rope try to pull each other across a dividing line, the present usage, first recorded in 1677, predates it by about two centuries. The noun tug itself means “a strenuous contest between two sides,” and war refers to fighting, either physical or figurative.

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Etymology

Origin of tug of war

1670–80 tug of war for def. 2; 1875–80 tug of war for def. 1

Example Sentences

U.S. stocks closed mixed on Thursday after a wild day on Wall Street in which metals surged, the price of oil spiked and a tug of war erupted in equities.

From MarketWatch

She watched him hugging her mother and sister and she sighed, feeling the familiar tug of war in her heart.

From Literature

SINGAPORE—One potential beneficiary of the tug of war over the Federal Reserve’s independence: China.

From The Wall Street Journal

Then came a decision which would see the delicate tug of war between the most powerful men in the country escalate into a clash of wills.

From BBC

If Mitchell’s tale is a decades-old take on the timeless tug of war between good and evil, “The New Canadian Curling Club,” a 2018 comedy by playwright Mark Crawford in which four immigrants show up for a learn-to-curl class, is a modern exploration of multiculturalism and acceptance.

From Los Angeles Times