gainstrive

G2A1I1N1S1T1R1I1V4E1

verb

To strive against; to resist, oppose.

First used 16th centuryScrabble 14
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Meanings

verbgainstrive (third-person singular simple present gainstrives, present participle gainstriving, simple past gainstrived or gainstrove, past participle gainstrived or gainstrove or gainstriven)

present singular third person gainstrives · participle present gainstriving · past gainstrived · past gainstrove · participle past gainstrived · participle past gainstrove · participle past gainstriven

  1. obsoletetransitiveTo strive against; to resist, oppose.First known use 16th century
  2. intransitiveobsoleteTo resist; to fight back.First known use 16th century

    For on the spoile of women he doth live, / Whose bodies chast, when ever in his powre / He may them catch unable to gainstrive, / He with his shamefull lust doth first deflowre, / And afterwardes themselves doth cruelly devoure.

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Origin

From gain- + strive.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

vinegarist
Cite this entry
APA

gainstrive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gainstrive

MLA

“gainstrive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gainstrive. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gainstrive,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gainstrive.

Source: gainstrive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.