wrestle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
wrestles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrestled,
past participle, past
-
wrestling
present participle
-
to engage in wrestling.
-
to contend, as in a struggle for mastery; grapple.
to wrestle with one's conscience.
verb (used with object)
-
wrestles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wrestled,
past participle, past
-
wrestling
present participle
-
to contend with in wrestling.
-
to force by or as if by wrestling.
-
to throw (a calf or other animal) for branding.
noun
-
wrestles
plural
-
an act of or a bout at wrestling.
-
a struggle.
verb
-
to fight (another person) by holding, throwing, etc, without punching with the closed fist
-
(intr) to participate in wrestling
-
to fight with (a person, problem, or thing)
wrestle with one's conscience
-
(tr) to move laboriously, as with wrestling movements
-
(tr) to throw (an animal) for branding
noun
-
the act of wrestling
-
a struggle or tussle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wrestlesimple
-
wrestlessimple
-
have wrestledperfect
-
has wrestledperfect
-
am wrestlingprogressive
-
are wrestlingprogressive
-
is wrestlingprogressive
-
have been wrestlingperfect progressive
-
has been wrestlingperfect progressive
Past
-
wrestledsimple
-
had wrestledperfect
-
was wrestlingprogressive
-
were wrestlingprogressive
-
had been wrestlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wrestle
before 1100; Middle English wrestlen, wrastlen (v.), Old English *wrǣstlian (compare Old English wrǣstlere wrestler), frequentative of wrǣstan to wrest; cognate with Middle Dutch, Middle Low German worstelen
Explanation
If you decide to wrestle on a team in high school, you'll be grabbing your opponent and trying to fling him to the ground while he tries to do the same to you. You might want to consider the ping pong team instead. Athletes wrestle wearing uniforms and helmets, and they follow very specific rules. Others wrestle more spontaneously — a bar bouncer might have to wrestle with an unruly patron, or a parent might need to wrestle a squirming toddler into her car seat. Yet another way to wrestle is with an idea or a problem, a kind of mental struggle. The Old English root, wræstan, means "to wrest," or to yank something out of another person's grasp.
Vocabulary lists containing wrestle
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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.
See Examples For:
Similar clashes are erupting nationwide as communities wrestle with privacy rights and the rapid spread of AI-enabled cameras.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
In September 2023, Maduro - then still president - sent 11,000 soldiers to storm and wrestle back control of the jail.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
As M.M. evolves from sidekick to central character, he also begins to behave more like Butcher, forcing him to wrestle with the erosion of his idealistic principles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Dell’s ability to wrestle successfully with the memory shortage was the primary reason Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring upgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Underweight.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
“Well, you can always jump up and wrestle 181.”
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
There, her brain still working on what she was doing in her office, she’ll lose herself on multiple fronts as she wrestles with a scene.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
The aspect that he says he wrestles with is how much higher rates would harm the economy.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
In one scene in Glenrothan, he rugby tackles Alan Cumming's Donal to the ground and wrestles him.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
Caught in a web of bureaucratic intrigue, he wrestles with matters of maturity, morality, conscience and redemption he has long evaded.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
And even then, I wonder if Gabriel knows that Gracus Ghuldor bites when he wrestles.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
They’d say there were times when he was away — I wrestled with that — but they would say yeah.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
For decades, physicists have wrestled with one of the deepest puzzles in modern science: the "black hole information paradox."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
“The couple and the guests wrestled their way through the streets against photographers and tourists from the church to the mayor’s office—hand-to-hand combat.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Schatz pointed out that Rubio had moved all foreign aid under the State Department and had just wrestled some of that money away from the OMB to respond to an Ebola outbreak.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
They danced and wrestled each other, and they rolled on the ground like wild animals, shouting and laughing.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Dory Funk Jr., a pro wrestling icon and one of three members of the Funk family to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, has died at age 85.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Funk’s involvement in wrestling also expanded into promotion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Tristan Angels grew up on his family's sheep farm in Kimmeridge, but a visit to a wrestling show at Bournemouth Pavilion when he was 18 years old changed his future path.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
From estate agent to wrestling superstardom in Mexico.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Mama was wrestling that hide out of the stream now, where it had been soaking for days and nights, gathering up its scummy, woolly slime.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
