tug-of-love

British

noun

a conflict over custody of a child between divorced parents or between natural parents and foster or adoptive parents

"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

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.

As John gets more into music, his home life becomes a tug-of-love between two needy mother figures, Mimi and Julia.

From The Guardian • Oct. 11, 2012

Young, black and beautiful, Basquiat was acclaimed from the moment he appeared in SoHo; he was soon Madonna's lover, Warhol's collaborator—their joint works are dreadful—and a tug-of-love prodigy between galleries.

From Slate • Nov. 20, 2010

Now he is two-and the point of contention in a tug-of-love between the mother and the family that raised him.

From Time Magazine Archive

In court, a vivid tug-of-love arose over a diamond-studded bracelet, worth millions, which Guitry had given his wife, then taken away after they separated.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023