tug of war
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noun
an athletic contest between two teams at opposite ends of a rope, each team trying to drag the other over a line.
a hard-fought, critical struggle for supremacy.
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Origin of tug of war
1670–80 for def. 2; 1875–80 for def. 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for tug of war
British Dictionary definitions for 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
any hard struggle, esp between two equally matched factions
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with tug of war
tug of war
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.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.