wrestle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to engage in wrestling.
-
to contend, as in a struggle for mastery; grapple.
to wrestle with one's conscience.
verb (used with object)
-
to contend with in wrestling.
-
to force by or as if by wrestling.
-
to throw (a calf or other animal) for branding.
noun
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an act of or a bout at wrestling.
-
a struggle.
verb
-
to fight (another person) by holding, throwing, etc, without punching with the closed fist
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(intr) to participate in wrestling
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to fight with (a person, problem, or thing)
wrestle with one's conscience
-
(tr) to move laboriously, as with wrestling movements
-
(tr) to throw (an animal) for branding
noun
-
the act of wrestling
-
a struggle or tussle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wrestlesimple
-
wrestlessimple
-
have wrestledperfect
-
has wrestledperfect
-
am wrestlingprogressive
-
are wrestlingprogressive
-
is wrestlingprogressive
-
have been wrestlingperfect progressive
-
has been wrestlingperfect progressive
Past
-
wrestledsimple
-
had wrestledperfect
-
was wrestlingprogressive
-
were wrestlingprogressive
-
had been wrestlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wrestle
before 1100; Middle English wrestlen, wrastlen (v.), Old English *wrǣstlian (compare Old English wrǣstlere wrestler), frequentative of wrǣstan to wrest; cognate with Middle Dutch, Middle Low German worstelen
Explanation
If you decide to wrestle on a team in high school, you'll be grabbing your opponent and trying to fling him to the ground while he tries to do the same to you. You might want to consider the ping pong team instead. Athletes wrestle wearing uniforms and helmets, and they follow very specific rules. Others wrestle more spontaneously — a bar bouncer might have to wrestle with an unruly patron, or a parent might need to wrestle a squirming toddler into her car seat. Yet another way to wrestle is with an idea or a problem, a kind of mental struggle. The Old English root, wræstan, means "to wrest," or to yank something out of another person's grasp.
Vocabulary lists containing wrestle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
However, his substitutions looked to control damage rather than wrestle back control.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
As AI threatens to make the billable hour obsolete, professional-services firms wrestle with reinventing how they charge clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Citizens go about their days, anxieties bleeding into their behaviors, trying to wrestle some control from a world that offers them none.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
For me, personally, I’ve had to wrestle with this idea after being on “SNL” for seven years and having to evaluate myself and having an audience evaluate me every week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
He wanted to wrestle with her after dinner and needed her to tuck him in every night.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
The aspect that he says he wrestles with is how much higher rates would harm the economy.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
Every Olympics wrestles with finding the perfect venue, and for the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026
Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew, has said that he schedules sentencing hearings for Fridays so he has all of the Sabbath to reflect on his decisions—and wrestles with them even afterward.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
While the government wrestles with provision for children, many families continue to struggle.
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2025
Helmuth sits at the table, tapping his pencil impatiently as he wrestles with his feelings.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
They’d say there were times when he was away — I wrestled with that — but they would say yeah.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
For decades, physicists have wrestled with one of the deepest puzzles in modern science: the "black hole information paradox."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Schatz pointed out that Rubio had moved all foreign aid under the State Department and had just wrestled some of that money away from the OMB to respond to an Ebola outbreak.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
He wrestled Wardley to the ground as both fighters swung for the hills.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
Daniel Boone, who not only wrestled bears but tried to date their sisters, described corners of the southern Appalachians as “so wild and horrid that it is impossible to behold them without terror.”
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Amid those exchanges, the Trump administration could be seen publicly wrestling with how to handle the threat of Chinese models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
They also organise specialised events dedicated to the likes of professional wrestling, horror and anime, featuring celebrity guests from across the world.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The company now has the rights to air live games and events in popular sports including football, baseball, boxing and wrestling.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
Dan Sullivan — and, no, it’s not about a candidate living a double life or wrestling demons within himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Surprise and suspicion flashed across Mrs. Wright’s face, and Mrs. Richardson could see the two emotions wrestling there.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
