The Collaborative International Dictionary
Struggle \Strug"gle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Struggled; p. pr. & vb. n. Struggling.] [OE. strogelen; cf. Icel. strj?ka to stroke, to beat, to flog, Sw. stryka to stroke, to strike, Dan. stryge, G. straucheln to stumble. Cf. Stroll.]
To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.
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To use great efforts; to labor hard; to strive; to contend forcibly; as, to struggle to save one's life; to struggle with the waves; to struggle with adversity.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it [Gettysburg] far above our power to add or detract.
--Lincoln. -
To labor in pain or anguish; to be in agony; to labor in any kind of difficulty or distress.
'T is wisdom to beware, And better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.
--Dryden.Syn: To strive; contend; labor; endeavor.
Wiktionary
n. The act of one who struggles. vb. (present participle of struggle English)
WordNet
adj. engaged in a struggle to overcome especially poverty or obscurity; "a financially struggling theater"; "struggling artists"
Usage examples of "struggling".
I struggled to free myself, and even though weighed down by these immense bodies, I succeeded in struggling to my feet, where, still grasping my long-sword, and shortening my grip upon it until I could use it as a dagger, I wrought such havoc among them that at one time I stood for an instant free.
He was still on his feet, but in the centre of a surging mass of struggling men, who were striving to pull him down as wolves pull down a stag.
I saw old Umslopogaas stagger to his feet -- ay, and saw him by a single gigantic effort swing up the struggling Nasta and with a shout of triumph hurl him straight over the parapet of the bridge, to be crushed to powder on the rocks two hundred feet below.
A pang of admiration and pity went through me as I looked at her, and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply, at the same time expressing my sorrow that I was not able, owing to my condition, to remain standing before her.
They rolled hither and thither among the struggling feet of men and horses.
Tomas writhed in its grasp, struggling to lift his mouth from the filthy water.
She smiled, struggling to love him, and reached back to undo her dress.
Gilwyn balled his good hand into a fist, struggling to summon an image of the two in his mind, but the harder he tried the more distorted the images became.
It was common for the snakes to rest between bouts of struggling free.
Thorin leaned over with them, struggling to support himself with his one arm.
The kreel was crying beside him, desperately struggling to raise itself even as blood sluiced from its wound.
Akeela continued whispering his name as he was carried away, occasionally fluttering his eyes, struggling against death.
But now they must have become angered by the continuous noise and excited by the smell of new blood, for all of a sudden a great form shot from a clump of low shrubbery into the midst of a struggling mass of humanity.
Beyond Thurid I could see my Dejah Thoris, wide-eyed and horrified, struggling at her bonds.
Over and over they went screaming and struggling, and slipping and plunging.