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A grapple; a struggle. A match for yards in fight, in grappling for the bear. Dryden. Grappling iron, a hooked iron used for grappling and holding fast a vessel or other object. -- Grappling tongs, broad-mouthed tongs for gathering oysters.

To effect a grasp; to make the motion of grasping; to clutch; to struggle; to strive. As one that grasped And tugged for life and was by strength subdued. Shak. To grasp at, to catch at; to try to seize; as, Alexander grasped at universal empire,

broken up by frost, etc.; to swell; to dilate; to expand; to distend; hence, to labor; to struggle. Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves. Prior. The heaving plain of ocean. Byron.

Collog.] The more civilized so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turks hollow in the struggle for existence. Darwin.

l sense; wickedness; depravity; iniquity; wrong; evil. Strong virtue, like strong nature, struggles still, Exerts itself, and then throws off the ill. Dryden.

e; as, indecorous conduct. It was useless and indecorous to attempt anything more by mere struggle. Burke.

c. Hoping here to end Intestine war in heaven, the arch foe subdued. Milton. An intestine struggle . . . between authority and liberty. Hume.

Lit., culture war; -- a name, originating with Virchow (1821 -- 1902), given to a struggle between the the Roman Catholic Church and the German government, chiefly over the latter's efforts to control educational and ecclesiastical appointments in the interest of the political policy of centralization. The struggle beg…

Effort to overcome in contest; struggle; endeavor. [R.] Farindon.

A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; an emulous struggle. "Many a warlike match." Drayton. A solemn match was made; he lost the prize. Dryden.

s when small objects are thrown down, to be taken by those who can seize them; a confused struggle. Shak.

A struggle against; resistance; opposition. [Obs.] Fotherby.

or physique and powers capable of dominating others; one fitted to survive in an egoistic struggle for the mastery.

; one who supports the cause of the Greeks; particularly, one who supported them in their struggle for independence against the Turks; a philhellene.

To contend; to struggle. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A contest; a struggle; as, a wrestling pull. Carew.

To rouse to action; to stir up; to incite to tumult, struggle, or war; to excite. He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind. Ps. cvii. 25. Æneas . . . employs his pains, In parts remote, to raise the Tuscan swains. Dryden.

To strive or struggle against anything; to make resistance; to draw back; to feel or show repugnance or reluctance. Apt to reluct at the excesses of it [passion]. Walton.

To struggle against anything; to resist; to oppose. [Obs.] "To delude their reluctating consciences." Dr. H. More.

To scramble or struggle; to wrangle; also, to be industrious. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.