Showing results for "wrestling"

• present participle of wrestle.

wrestling

American  

[res-ling] / ˈrɛs lɪŋ /

noun

1. a sport in which two opponents struggle hand to hand in order to pin or press each other's shoulders to the mat or ground, with the style, rules, and regulations differing widely in amateur and professional matches.

2. the act of a person who wrestles.

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wrestling British  

/ ˈrɛslɪŋ /

noun

1. any of certain sports in which the contestants fight each other according to various rules governing holds and usually forbidding blows with the closed fist. The principal object is to overcome the opponent either by throwing or pinning him to the ground or by causing him to submit See freestyle Graeco-Roman sumo

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Etymology

Origin of wrestling

before 1100; Middle English; Old English wrǣstlunge. See wrestle, -ing ¹

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Explanation

Wrestling is a sport in which two athletes compete to see who can hold the other down, using specific moves. If you enjoy grappling with your brother, pinning each other to the couch, you might want to take up wrestling. Wrestling is one of the oldest sports, dating back to the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians. The original Greek Olympics included a brutal, violent form of wrestling. If you watch or participate in high school or college wrestling, you know that these days, it's a highly controlled, athletic sport. So-called professional wrestling, on the other hand, is mainly a form of entertainment, featuring gaudy costumes and elaborately choreographed moves.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wrestling

And if the net is widened to include powerlifting and pro wrestling, Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Jesse Ventura of Minnesota get a nod.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

Across the album's 12 tracks, he frequently sounds adrift, fretting about the state of the world and wrestling with "monsters in your head that you can't turn off".

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

As part of a cultural exchange, three Senegalese and three Swiss wrestlers faced off Sunday in Dakar, mixing their own ancestral wrestling traditions.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

At the same time, Ford has been wrestling with stiff competition from Chinese upstarts around the world, a reality that will become more complicated if those companies were to break into the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

They had mock battles and tumbled over and over, wrestling and biting.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

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Related Words

• judo
• karate

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