struggle

plural struggles · alternative obsolete stroggell · alternative obsolete strogell

1. An effortful attempt to escape something dangerous, usually out of fear for one's life or health.

   The most striking detail was the absence of any sign of struggle. It looked as though the woman had made no attempt to fight back, evident from the lack of bruises/wounds on her body. It was probable that she had not expected the attack.

   2026 September 3, Shreya Lele, “The “Lady of the Dunes” Was Found Murdered in 1974. Nearly 50 Years Later, She Got Her Name Back”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2026

2. figurativelyStrife, contention, great effort.

   R. Moskowitz charges cisgender readers to be as conscious and deliberate with our religious identities as transgender and gender non-conforming people are with theirs, arguing that holiness is only achieved through continuous and unrelenting struggle and change.

   2019, Rachel Timoner, “Book Review: Textual Activism by Rabbi Mike Moskowitz”, in Tikkun

   1 more example

   The struggle with ways and means had recommenced, more difficult now a hundredfold than it had been before, because of their increasing needs. Their income disappeared as a little rivulet that is swallowed by the thirsty ground. He worked night and day to supplement it.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

present singular third person struggles · participle present struggling · participle past struggled · past struggled · alternative obsolete stroggell · alternative obsolete strogell

1. intransitiveTo strive, to labour in difficulty, to fight (for or against), to contend.

   During the centuries, the people of Ireland struggled constantly to assert their right to govern themselves.

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   Troutbeck is a tiny village midway between Penrith and Keswick in a very sparsely populated part of Cumberland, and it used to be said by facetious travellers that the reason why it ever had a station at all was to give the engine a rest after it had struggled up the long and trying incline from Threlkeld.

   1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709

   England were ponderous with ball in hand, their runners static when taking the ball and their lines obvious, while their front row struggled badly in the scrum.

   2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport

   Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.

   2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21

   Most train operators have reduced services with emergency timetables, as they struggle to cope with a rapid increase in staff absences due to the Omicron variant of COVID.

   2022 January 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Emergency timetables as absences surge due to COVID”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6

   The sheriff’s office released a compilation of bodycam footage Friday from deputies at the scene that shows them handcuffing Earl and pinning him down for more than 20 minutes as he struggles and repeatedly shouts for help.

   2024 September 30, Chelsea Bailey, “‘Take his pulse, he’s blue’: Bodycam footage shows fatal encounter between epileptic Indiana man and first responders”, in CNN

   Synonyms: agonize

2. intransitiveTo have difficulty with something.

   One of the doctor’s patients struggled with depression.

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   Then our first effort must be to identify the actual words. Only after recognizing them individually can we begin to try to understand them, to struggle with perceiving what they mean.

   1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 17

3. intransitiveTo strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.

   She struggled to escape from her assailant's grasp.

   1 more example

   Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC