Other forms: wrestling, wrestled, wrestles
To wrestle is to struggle physically to overpower somebody. Wrestle him to the ground, wrestling match, wrestle with the lid.
As a sport it is one of the oldest there is and was in the original Olympic games. The figurative sense — wrestle with a problem — is now commoner than the physical one. Note the silent w, which English keeps in wr- words where the sound was lost centuries ago.
1verbwrestleTo struggle physically to overpower somebody.
“The two boys wrestled on the grass until their mum told them to stop.”
2verbdifficultyTo struggle with a difficulty.
“I've been wrestling with this maths problem all afternoon.”
wrestle is a struggling.
Middle English wrestlen comes from Old English wraestlian, a frequentative of wraestan, to twist. Wrest is the same root.
Proto-Indo-European
*wreyt- — to twist
Proto-Germanic
*wraistijaną — to turn; to twist, wrest
Old English
wrǣstlian — to wrestle
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
English, today
wrestle
Built from
The 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”), from Old English wrǣstlian (“to wrestle”), a form of wrǣstan (“to twist, wrest”), from Proto-Germanic wraistijaną (“to turn; to twist, wrest”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European wreyt- (“to twist”). by surface analysis, wrest + -le. Probably related to wraxle UK. The is derived from the verb. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA