wrestle

English

WOTD – 10 June 2025

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English wrestlen, wrastlen (“to engage in grappling combat or sport, struggle, wrestle; to twist and turn, squirm, wriggle, writhe; (figurative) to contend, grapple with, struggle”),[1] from Old English wrǣstlian (“to wrestle”),[2] a frequentative form of wrǣstan (“to twist, wrest”),[3][4] from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną (“to turn; to twist, wrest”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- (“to twist”). By surface analysis, wrest +‎ -le (frequentative suffix). Probably related to wraxle (UK, dialectal, archaic).

The noun is derived from the verb.[5]

cognates

Pronunciation

Verb

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

  1. (transitive)
    1. To take part in (a wrestling bout or match).
    2. Sometimes followed by down: to contend with or move (someone) into or out of a position by grappling; also, to overcome (someone) by grappling.
      • 1881, Paul B[elloni] Du Chaillu, chapter V, in The Land of the Midnight Sun: Summer and Winter Journeys through Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Northern Finland. […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 51:
        My driver at the second station was a stout girl of twenty, strong enough to wrestle any man, but shy, modest, and gentle.
      • 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎[1], 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.
    3. To move or manipulate (something) using physical effort, usually with some difficulty or opposition.
    4. (figurative) To engage in (a contest or struggle).
    5. (Western US) To throw down (a calf or other livestock animal) for branding.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To grapple or otherwise contend with an opponent in order to throw or force them to the ground, chiefly as a sport or in unarmed combat.
      Synonym: (UK, dialectal, archaic) wraxle
      • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio ccclxxxix, verso, column 1; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:
        Wreſtell nat with me for I wyll throwe the [thee] on thy backe […]
      • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, 2 Macchabees iiij:[14], folio lxxv, verso:
        [Y]ee gaue their diligẽce [diligence] to lerne to fight, to wriſtle, to leape, to daunce, ⁊ to put at yͤ ſtone: […]
      • 1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Eyghte Booke of the Thirde Decade”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, 3rd decade, folio 131, verso:
        She [a manatee] woolde oftentymes play and wreſtle vppon the banke with the kynges chamberlens: And eſpecially with a younge man whom the kynge fauoured well, beinge alſo accuſtomed to feede her.
      • 1580, Iohn Lyly [i.e., John Lyly], “Euphues Glasse for Europe”, in Euphues and His England. […], London: […] [Thomas East] for Gabriell Cawood, […], →OCLC, folio 116, verso:
        Actiue they are in all things, whether it be to wraſtle in the games of Olympia, or to fight at Barriers in Paleſtra, able to cary as great burthens as Milo [of Croton], of ſthrength to throwe as bigge ſtones as Turnus, and what not, […]
      • 1603, Plutarch, “The Second Booke of the Symposiaques”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, question 5, page 673:
        [H]eere at the Pythique games, the manner is to bring in certeine champions at every ſeverall game or plaie: firſt boies to vvreſtle, and after them, men-vvreſtlers alſo; […]
      • 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. David. […].] The Tropheis. The First Booke of the Fourth Day of the Second Week, of Bartas.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 521:
        VVe vvraſtle not (after your Shepheards guiſe) / For painted Sheep-hooks, or ſuch pettie Prize, / Or for a Cage, a Lamb, or bread and cheeſe: / The Vanquiſht Head muſt be the Victors Fees.
      • 1668, Franciscus Euistor the Palæopolite [pseudonym; Henry More], “The First Dialogue”, in Divine Dialogues, Containing Sundry Disquisitions & Instructions Concerning the Attributes of God and His Providence in the World. […], London: […] James Flesher, →OCLC, paragraph XXIII, pages 92–93:
        And that you may be farther corroborated in your belief, conſider the manifold Stories of Apparitions, and hovv many Spectres have been ſeen or felt to vvraſtle, pull or tug vvith a man: vvhich, if they vvere a mere Congeries of Atomes, vvere impoſſible.
      • 1671, Desiderius Erasmus, “The Woman in Childbed”, in H. M. [attributed to Henry More or Henry Munday], transl., The Colloquies, or Familiar Discourses of Desiderius Erasmus of Roterdam, […], London: […] E[van] T[yler] and R[alph] H[olt] for H[enry] Brome, B[enjamin] Tooke, and T[homas] Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 288:
        I am novv a laying in the fourth vveek, and I am ſtrong enough even to vvraſtle.
      • 1712 October 17 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “MONDAY, October 6, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 502; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 470:
        I am confident, were there a scene written, wherein Pinkethman should break his leg by wrestling with Bullock, and Dickey come in to set it, without one word said but what should be according to the exact rules of surgery in making this extension and binding up the leg, the whole house should be in a roar of applause at the dissembled anguish of the patient, the help given by him who threw him down, and the handy address and arch looks of the surgeon.
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 246:
        He that vvreſtles vvith us ſtrengthens our nerves, and ſharpens our ſkill. Our antagoniſt is our helper.
      • 1855, Charles Kingsley, “Story III—Theseus: Part II: How Theseus Slew the Devourers of Men”, in The Heroes: Or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children, London; Glasgow: Blackie and Son, →OCLC, page 175:
        [H]e [Kerkuon or Cercyon of Eleusis] challenges all comers to wrestle with him, for he is the best wrestler in all Attica, and overthrows all who come; and those whom he overthrows he murders miserably, and his palace-court is full of their bones.
    2. Followed by with: to move or manipulate something using physical effort, usually with some difficulty or opposition.
    3. (figurative)
      1. To make one's way or move with some difficulty or effort.
        • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Description of Spawhawn”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 93:
          [S]o great a ſtorme of vvind and raine beat vpon vs that vvee not only loſt our vvay, but our ſelues, and at length vvraſtled to Geer, hauing firſt paſt through the Straits of Mozendram.
        • 1648, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto XVII. The Mortification. Stanza 171.”, in Psyche: Or Loves Mysterie, […], London: […] John Dawson for George Boddington, […], →OCLC, page 327, column 2:
          [T]hy Lips, […] their tvvo-leav'd Door / So cloſe they ſhut, that […] not Breath it ſelfe, has povver to bore / Its vvay, but forced is to goe about, / And through the Noſes Sluces vvreſtle out.
        • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Village—the Washpool—Village Industries—the Belfry—Jackdaws—Village Chronicles”, in Wild Life in a Southern County […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 83:
          These fires are or were singularly destructive in villages—the flames running from thatch to thatch, and, as they express it, ‘wrastling’ across the intervening spaces.
      2. Followed by against or with: to contend, to struggle; to exert effort, to strive.
        Synonym: (UK, dialectal, archaic) wraxle
      3. (archaic) To contend verbally; to argue, to debate, to dispute.
        • 1626 May 31 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Donne, “Sermon LXXVII. Preached at St. Paul’s, May 21, 1626.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume III, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 400:
          [B]ecause […] they were loath to wrestle with the people, or force them from dangerous customs, they came from that supine negligence, in tolerating prayer for the dead, to establish a doctrinal point of purgatory; […]
          The spelling has been modernized.
      4. (archaic) To twist or wriggle; to writhe.
        • 1608, [Odet de La Noue, Sieur de Téligny], “The Profit of Imprisonment. A Paradox, […]”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 798:
          But God (vvhen pleaſeth him) doth giue this ſtrength to man, / VVhereby he ſtandeth ſtout; euen like a mightie rocke / Amid the mounting vvaues vvhen Eole [Aeolus] doth vnlocke / Sterne Auſters ſtormie gate, making the vvaters vvraſtle / And ruſh vvith vvrathfull rage againſt the ſturdie caſtle, […]
        • 1869 April, Bret Harte, “[Spanish Idyls and Legends.] Friar Pedro’s Ride.”, in Complete Poetical Works (The Works of Bret Harte; VIII), Argonaut edition, New York, N.Y.: P[eter] F[enelon] Collier & Son, published 1, →OCLC, page 99:
          He saw the glebe land guiltless of a furrow; / He saw the wild oats wrestle on the hill; / He saw the gopher working in his burrow; / He saw the squirrel scampering at his will;— […]
      5. (archaic) Followed by with: to concern or occupy oneself closely, or deal with, a task, etc.
        • 1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Prœmium”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC:
          Our hope is, that the yong Studient, vvho heretofore meeting at the firſt, and vvraſtling vvith as difficult termes and matter, as in many yeares after, vvas at the firſt diſcouraged (as many haue bin) may be reading theſe Inſtitutes, haue the difficultie and darkeneſſe both of the Matter and of the Termes and VVords of Art in the beginnings of his Studie facilitated, and explained vnto him, to the end hee may proceed in his Studie cheerefully, and vvith delight; […]

Conjugation

Conjugation of wrestle
infinitive (to) wrestle
present tense past tense
1st-person singular wrestle wrestled
2nd-person singular wrestle, wrestlest† wrestled, wrestledst†
3rd-person singular wrestles, wrestleth† wrestled
plural wrestle
subjunctive wrestle wrestled
imperative wrestle —
participles wrestling wrestled

† Archaic or obsolete.

Alternative forms

  • rassle, wrassle (pronunciation spelling)
  • wrastle (obsolete except Britain, dialectal, or US, informal)

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

wrestle (countable and uncountable, plural wrestles)

  1. (countable)
    1. A fight or struggle between people during which they grapple or otherwise contend with each other in order to throw or force their opponent to the ground, chiefly as a sport or in unarmed combat.
    2. (figurative) A situation in which people compete with each other; a contest, a struggle.
  2. (uncountable, also figurative) The action of contending or struggling.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “wrestlen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882) “wrǽstlian”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1270, column 2.
  3. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882) “wrǽstan”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1270, column 2.
  4. ^ “wrestle, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “wrestle, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ^ “wrestle, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2024; “wrestle, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

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