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• tug of war
  tug of war

  noun

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

  noun

  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

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

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Explanation

Tug-of-war is a game or contest in which two teams pull hard on the opposite ends of a long rope. Any struggle that feels like this can also be called a tug-of-war. A figurative tug-of-war can be any situation with two well-matched opponents, like a tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress or a tug-of-war between environmentalists and supporters of the oil industry. This meaning of "a struggle between two equally matched groups" arose in the 17th century, long before the actual athletic competition, which dates from around 1875.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tug of war tug-of-war

AI agents may give everyday shoppers an edge, but the technology is igniting an even more intense tug of war over consumer dollars.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

A scheme in Teesside saw a tug of war between ministers over whether it should be used for a low carbon hydrogen energy scheme, or a massive new AI data centre.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

You tapped into something really universal with the strife between boomer parents and their millennial children — a real tug of war for power that’s happening in a lot of people’s lives right now.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Their model describes a computational tug of war between two fundamentally different kinds of neural organization, both of which are established even before birth.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026

The tug of war ended almost before it began as the sack ripped and articles of clothing spilled everywhere.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

“People may underestimate wind and solar power,” Cena says in one ad, describing industry job creation as he calmly defeats several grizzly bears in a tug-of-war.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Some historians have likened the dispute to the French and German tug-of-war over Charlemagne.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

But now, the yellow metal is caught in a tug-of-war.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

Think of the fight against climate change like a tug-of-war, with emissions on one end of the rope and efforts to mitigate them on the other.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026

The mix of the old aristocratic families and the hyper-rich often plays out as a none-too-subtle tug-of-war between class and money.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

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