tug of war

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.

tug-of-war

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of tug of war¹

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

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

He argued that a tug of war with the West over Russia’s soul was just as fierce as the fight for natural resources.

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“But people don’t want to miss out, so you have a tug of war going on.”

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“They shouldn’t be the rope in this tug of war game that’s going on,” said Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

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McCartney would emerge with a new solo LP in 1982—the exemplary “Tug of War”—and Wings would fall into the arms of history.

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Other subterranean tremors acknowledge Maia’s inner tug of war between New York and her new battleground.

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