Wrestling is the sport of gripping your opponent and forcing them to the ground. Freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, an Olympic wrestling final.
It is one of the oldest sports there is and has been in the Olympics since the ancient games. It is quite separate from professional wrestling, which is staged entertainment with scripted outcomes, and the two share almost nothing but the name. The verb is wrestle, and it has a common figurative use meaning to struggle with a difficulty: wrestle with a problem, wrestling with the accounts. Note the silent w and t.
1nounwrestlingThe sport of gripping an opponent and forcing them down.
“He took up wrestling at school and stayed with it.”
2nounstagedStaged entertainment in the form of wrestling matches.
“Professional wrestling is theatre with very fit actors.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
wrestling is a sport.
Old English wraestlung comes from wraestan, to twist — the same root as wrest, wrist and wrench. Almost every English word starting wr- involves twisting, which is a rare surviving piece of sound symbolism.
Old English
wræstlung
English, today
wrestling
From late Old English wræstlung.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA