wrestle

Everyday

1. To fight by holding and pushing someone, trying to get them to the ground, as a sport or in play. tree →
2. To struggle hard with a problem or a difficult object: wrestle with homework. tree →

In the lessons

In sport and PE: wrestling has rules and referees. In everyday life: children wrestle in play; you wrestle with a heavy suitcase. In stories and school: «She wrestled with the maths problem» means she worked hard to solve it.

Examples

• The two brothers wrestled on the grass. tree →
• He wrestled with the tricky fraction problem for ages. tree →
• Mum wrestled the huge suitcase onto the train. tree →
• Wrestling is an old Olympic sport. tree →
• The puppy wrestled with the rope toy. tree →
• I wrestled with the choice between the two books. tree →

Note

Silent t and w: say «RESS-ul». Regular verb: wrestled, wrestling (drop the e). Noun: wrestling (the sport), wrestler (the person). Safety: play-fighting should stop when someone says stop.

In Jewish tradition

Jacob wrestles with a man through the night, and Rachel wrestles with her sister in a struggle over children.

Interpretation. The tradition says Jacob's opponent was an angel, perhaps Esau's guardian angel. After the struggle Jacob is named Israel, "he who struggles with God", and Jews avoid eating the thigh muscle in memory of it.

Examples

• And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. (Torah GEN.32.24, JPS 1917) tree →
• And Rachel said: 'With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.' And she called his name Naphtali. (Torah GEN.30.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled with him. (Torah GEN.32.25, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Silent t and w: say «RESS-ul». Regular verb: wrestled, wrestling (drop the e). Noun: wrestling (the sport), wrestler (the person). Safety: play-fighting should stop when someone says stop.