wrestle

• wrassle (eye dialect)
• wrastle (obsolete or Britain, dialectal, or US, informal)

From Middle English wrestlen, wrastlen (also as wraxlen), from Old English wræstlian, wraxlian (“to contend, wrestle”); corresponding to wrest +‎ -le. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wrosselje (“to contend, wrestle”), West Frisian wrakselje (“to wrestle”), Middle Dutch wrastelen (“to wrestle”), Middle Low German wrostelen (“to wrestle”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛ.səl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛsəl

wrestle (plural wrestles)

1. A wrestling bout.
2. A struggle.

wrestle (third-person singular simple present wrestles, present participle wrestling, simple past and past participle wrestled)

1. (intransitive) To contend, with an opponent, by grappling and attempting to throw, immobilize or otherwise defeat him, depending on the specific rules of the contest.
2. (intransitive) To struggle or strive.
   • c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 11:

     [H]e [the Earl of Essex] vvas to vvraſtle vvith a Queens declyning, or rather vvith her very ſetting Age (as vve may term it,) vvhich, beſides other reſpects, is commonly even of it ſelfe the more umbratious and apprehenſive, as for the moſt part all Horizons are charged vvith certain Vapours tovvards their Evening.

3. (transitive) To take part in a wrestling match with someone.
4. (transitive) To move or lift (something) with difficulty.
   • 2023 July 26, Jeanna Smialek, “Fed Raises Rates After a Pause and Leaves Door Open to More”, in The New York Times‎:

     Federal Reserve officials raised interest rates to their highest level in 22 years and left the door open to further action as they continued their 16-month campaign to wrestle inflation lower by cooling the American economy.

5. (transitive) To throw a calf etc in order to brand it.
6. (transitive) To fight.
   • 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 21 April 2019:

     Tunisia dug in to frustrate England in the second half but [Harry] Kane was the match-winner with a late header from Harry Maguire's flick, justice being done after referee Wilmar Roldan and the video assistant referee (VAR) had failed to spot him being wrestled to the ground twice in the penalty area.

• Lewters, Welters, swelter, welters