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:
The Tour continues to wrestle with the heat of the European summer, which cooked some early stages and reignited discussions over whether races should start earlier in the morning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
However, his substitutions looked to control damage rather than wrestle back control.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
"Because it's so big, and because it is so regional, it does create tensions that have been with us since the beginning, and we still wrestle with them today," he says.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
But it was interesting to see him wrestle with how his work hinders that — is it the crutch or the salvation?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
As it was, I had to wrestle daily with both my inadequacy and my uncontrollable jealousy.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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
Every Olympics wrestles with finding the perfect venue, and for the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 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
Lou Ann wrestles a large sleeping mat out of the linen closet and flips on a light in a room crowded with cribs and small sleeping mats.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
Firefighters wrestled "numerous flare-ups" under control overnight, working in very difficult conditions as powerful winds buffeted the eastern region bordering Germany -- with a "mini-tornado" even striking a town outside the park.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
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
Daniel Boone, who not only wrestled bears but tried to date their sisters, described corners of the southern Appalachians as “so wild and horrid that it is impossible to behold them without terror.”
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Schools across the country are already wrestling with how much artificial intelligence belongs in education.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
His professional wrestling career spanned two decades, and he became one of the most well-known WWE superstars during this time.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
I’ve been wrestling with Jason Statham for a decade and I’m finally conceding defeat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
“If I have something that I’m, like, wrestling or struggling with, I will call one of them or several of them and just get additional points of view,” he added.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
For months, Jason had been wrestling with the question of where he belonged.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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.
