Word
struggle
Phoneticsstrug·gle
US/ˈstɹəɡəɫ/
UK/stɹˈʌɡəl/
Definitions
01to have difficulty
v. to find something very hard to do or deal with.
v. to experience significant difficulty in achieving a task or maintaining a standard.
“Many students struggle with math because the concepts are quite abstract.”
“Even experienced researchers struggle to keep pace with the sheer volume of new data being published in the field every month.”
Usage
Often used with the preposition 'with' or followed by an infinitive.
Pitfall
He struggles with do his homework.
He struggles with doing his homework.
The preposition 'with' must be followed by a noun or a gerund (-ing form).
02to move with effort
v. to move your body with great effort, often to get free from something.
v. to make violent or forceful physical efforts to escape from restraint or to move through an obstacle.
“The cat struggled to get out of the carrier when we arrived at the vet.”
“The climber struggled against the gale-force winds, trying to maintain his footing on the narrow, icy ridge.”
Usage
Intransitive verb; often describes physical resistance.
03a difficult task
n. a situation that is very hard to deal with or requires a lot of work.
n. an act of striving or a period of difficult effort against opposition or hardship.
“It was a real struggle to finish the marathon in such hot weather.”
“The long struggle for independence eventually led to a peaceful transition of power and the establishment of a new constitution.”
Usage
Countable noun.
Antonyms
04physical fight
n. a physical fight or a situation where people use force against each other.
n. a physical encounter or scuffle involving forceful resistance.
“There were signs of a struggle in the room, with chairs knocked over and glass on the floor.”
“A brief struggle ensued as the guards attempted to disarm the intruder before he could reach the secure wing of the facility.”
Usage
Often used with 'ensued' or 'broke out'.
Real-World Examples
“Rideout's release comes as several countries in West Africa and the Sahel have been struggling with terror attacks.” “Tell us: have you struggled to find work later in your career?” “Many companies are also said to struggle with out-of-date computer systems, with around 60% more than 20-years-old.” “Buyers of AI services are struggling to control costs and sellers are not sure how much to charge.” Etymology
From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Perhaps from a variant of strokelen, stroukelen (> English stroll), from Middle Dutch struyckelen ("to stumble, trip, falter"; > Modern Dutch struikelen), the frequentative form of Old Dutch strūkon (“to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic strūkōną, strūkēną (“to be stiff”), from Proto-Indo-European strug-, *ster- (“to be stiff; to bristle, strut, stumble, fall”), related to Middle Low German strûkelen ("to stumble"; > Low German strükeln), Old High German strūhhēn, strūhhōn ("to stumble, trip, tumble, go astray"; > German strauchen, straucheln). Alternative etymology derives the base of struggle from Old Norse strúgr (“arrogance, pride, spitefulness, ill-will”) + -le (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *strūkaz (“stiff, rigid”), ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European root above, which would make it cognate with dialectal Swedish strug (“contention, strife, discord”), Norwegian stru (“obstinate, unruly”), Danish struende (“reluctantly”), Scots strug (“difficulty, perplexity, a laborious task”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/struggle