rassle

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To take part in (a wrestling bout or match).
   • And novv Ptolemais being to vvreſtle her laſt fall, ſtripped her ſelf of all cumberſome clothes: vvomen, children, aged perſons, vveak folks […] vvere ſent avvay; […]1639, Thomas Fuller, “Ptolemais Besieged, and Taken by Sultan Serapha”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of...
2. (transitive) Sometimes followed by down: to contend with or move (someone) into or out of a position by grappling; also, to overcome (someone) by grappling.
   • My driver at the second station was a stout girl of twenty, strong enough to wrestle any man, but shy, modest, and gentle.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...
3. (transitive) To move or manipulate (something) using physical effort, usually with some difficulty or opposition.
   • I couldn't wrestle the trunk down the hall.
4. (figuratively, transitive) To engage in (a contest or struggle).
5. (US, Western, transitive) To throw down (a calf or other livestock animal) for branding.
6. (intransitive) 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.
   • Wreſtell nat with me for I wyll throwe the [thee] on thy backe […]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...

   Synonyms:

   wraxle

See all 15 meanings of wrestle