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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

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

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

A tug of war for copper between the U.S. and China will keep prices elevated while supply-side risks could continue to tighten the market, the analysts write.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

Parthia and Rome had been engaged in a tug of war for decades as provinces along the eastern border of Rome’s territory changed hands and shifted loyalties.

From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby

For a change from that bit of torture, Smith challenges teammates to modified games of tug-of-war, where each player grips one side of a massive tire and tries to drag the other to the turf.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Still, their emotionally ruinous tug-of-war goes on for so many rounds that the movie limps toward the end credits exhausted.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

For now, though, the tug-of-war between finances and players' rights means the matter remains unresolved.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

As a result, there is scope for the tug-of-war between rising stock prices and rising bond yields to persist for now.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

It’s not easy working on something when a sea lion is playing tug-of-war with the other end.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr