STRUGGLE | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of struggle in English struggleverb uk /ˈstrʌɡ.əl/ us /ˈstrʌɡ.əl/

struggle verb (EFFORT)

Add to word list Add to word list B2 [ I ] to experience difficulty and make a very great effort in order to do something: [ + to infinitive ] The dog had been struggling to get free of the wire noose. I've been struggling to understand this article all afternoon. Fish struggle for survival when the water level drops in the lake. to try to do something

• tryI'll try to call her again.
• attemptI have never attempted to run a marathon.
• endeavourUK Engineers are endeavouring to locate the source of the problem.
• seekThey sought to reassure the public.
• battleHe was battling to fix the roof in the rain.
• striveWith limited resources, they are striving to make the school a better one.

See more results »  struggle along, through, out, etc. to move somewhere with great effort: He struggled along the rough road holding his son. By this time he'd managed to struggle out of bed. [ I ] informal to be in danger of failing or being defeated: After the first half, United were really struggling.

• I struggle to balance work and family commitments.
• Many single parents struggle to bring their children up on a low income.
• He struggled to pedal his bicycle up the hill.
• We struggled up the slippery ascent .
• The family is struggling to survive on very little money.

Trying and making an effort

• A game
• all out
• assault
• attempt
• attempted
• commitment
• give (something) your all phrase
• give something your best shot idiom
• go after someone phrasal verb
• go all out idiom
• go down swinging/fighting idiom
• invest
• nose
• retry
• run after someone/something phrasal verb
• scrabble
• shoot for something phrasal verb
• shoot for the moon idiom
• spare
• stretch

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Slow and moving slowly Unsafe and insecure

struggle verb (FIGHT)

B2 [ I ] to fight, especially with your hands: He struggled with his attacker who then ran away. to fight

• fightAll this is really not worth fighting over.
• scrapTwo boys were scrapping in the playground.
• brawlThe football hooligans are out brawling again.
• clashStudents clashed with police during demonstrations at five universities.
• struggleSome of the customers struggled with the robbers, but to no avail.
• come to blowsSupporters nearly came to blows with each other before the match.

See more results » C2 [ I usually + adv/prep ] to use a lot of effort to defeat someone, prevent something, or achieve something: For years she struggled with/against the establishment to get her theories accepted.

• She struggled with her attacker but he was too strong for her.
• I tried to pick him up but he struggled and got free.

Fighting

• armed combat
• arms
• array
• battle scar
• bellicosity
• blood diamond
• bloodless
• bloodletting
• conflict
• counterinsurgency
• dust-up
• engage
• gunfight
• pick on someone your own size idiom
• pillow fight
• police action
• pugilistic
• pull a knife
• punch out phrasal verb
• toe

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Effort and expending energy

Phrasal verb

struggle on strugglenoun [ C ] uk /ˈstrʌɡ.əl/ us /ˈstrʌɡ.əl/

struggle noun [C] (EFFORT)

B2 a very difficult task that you can do only by making a great effort: It was a terrible struggle for him to accept her death. The people of this country will continue in their struggle for independence. [ + to infinitive ] She never gave up the struggle to have her son freed from prison. It's going to be an uphill struggle (= very difficult) to get your ideas accepted.

• It was a struggle just to keep my footing.
• The film is about a young police-officer and his struggle to expose corruption in the force.
• Trying to change attitudes to disability is an uphill struggle.
• We managed to finish the work on time but it was a struggle.
• It's a struggle, raising kids on your own.

Effort and expending energy

• assiduity
• assiduous
• assiduously
• assiduousness
• be running on empty idiom
• bust
• effortful
• effortfully
• elbow grease
• exertion
• fight against someone
• fight for something
• gas pedal
• grind
• labour
• pains
• painstaking
• painstakingly
• perseverance
• plough

See more results »

struggle noun [C] (FIGHT)

B2 a physical or mental fight: a struggle with an armed robber the struggle between good and evil Clearly there will be a power struggle within the company. a fight

• fightHe got into a fight in school.
• fistfightHe was arrested for getting into a fistfight after the match.
• brawlHe was injured in a brawl outside the stadium.
• scuffleThere were a few scuffles between fans after the match.
• clashFive people were injured in clashes between strikers and owners.
• struggleHe managed to escape after a struggle.

See more results »

• a struggle for supremacy
• There is an eternal struggle between good and evil.
• India attained independence in 1947, after decades of struggle.
• There is a furious struggle going on between the two presidential candidates.
• In the 80s he took centre stage in his party's struggle with the unions.

Fighting

• armed combat
• arms
• array
• battle scar
• bellicosity
• blood diamond
• bloodless
• bloodletting
• conflict
• counterinsurgency
• dust-up
• engage
• gunfight
• pick on someone your own size idiom
• pillow fight
• police action
• pugilistic
• pull a knife
• punch out phrasal verb
• toe

See more results » (Definition of struggle from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

struggle | American Dictionary

struggleverb [ I ] us /ˈstrʌɡ·əl/

struggle verb [I] (TRY HARD)

Add to word list Add to word list to work hard to do something: We watched boys on skateboards struggle to keep their balance.

struggle verb [I] (FIGHT)

to fight, esp. physically: He struggled with his cousin, and his uncle had to step in to calm things down.

struggle verb [I] (MOVE)

to move with difficulty: She struggled out of her chair. strugglenoun [ C ] us /ˈstrʌɡ·əl/

struggle noun [C] (FIGHT)

a fight: Both men were arrested after their struggle in the street.

struggle noun [C] (TRYING HARD)

a very great effort to do something: Central banks everywhere are still fighting the struggle against inflation. (Definition of struggle from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

struggle | Business English

strugglenoun [ C ] uk /ˈstrʌɡl/ us Add to word list Add to word list a hard effort or fight to do or get something: a struggle for sth There was a struggle for control of the company.a struggle against sth The struggle against drugs took up much of the police's time and manpower. something that is extremely difficult to achieve: We completed the project, but it was a struggle.a struggle to do sth It has been a struggle to make the business profitable. struggleverb [ I ] uk /ˈstrʌɡl/ us to try or fight very hard in order to do or get something: struggle with/against sth For years she struggled with the department to get her ideas accepted. struggle for sth Women struggle for equal rights. to find it extremely difficult to succeed or to achieve something: In the current climate many small businesses are struggling.struggle to do sth The Government will struggle to achieve its target of 15% of electricity from renewables.struggle along/through The company may struggle along on its own but a merger with a stronger company would be better for its pension holders. (Definition of struggle from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of struggle

struggle In this institutional struggle, some groups will end up supporting their second preference in order to avoid an even worse outcome. From the Cambridge English Corpus An ideology was needed to explain why it was that some people were not caught up in the neutralist struggle to avoid civil war altogether. From the Cambridge English Corpus Contemporary social scientists struggle with the problem of being precise about that which defies precision : the cloudiness of our own lives. From the Cambridge English Corpus If there was really so little to decide, what were the local struggles all about? From the Cambridge English Corpus And so the spoken drama struggles, receiving little international or local community funding, nor extra government money to compensate. From the Cambridge English Corpus Instead, it was a series of ad hoc measures implemented in a struggle to prevent chaos and to stop revolutionary turmoil. From the Cambridge English Corpus They could not count on the same degree of popular support following any decision to start an armed struggle for power. From the Cambridge English Corpus In these struggles the latter regularly appealed for support to a larger cultivated public. From the Cambridge English Corpus Much archaeological research deals with periods and regions for which it is a real struggle to discern the agency of individuals. From the Cambridge English Corpus Additionally, a dyad will only be classified as coercively attached if the attachment figure engages in the struggle which cannot be resolved. From the Cambridge English Corpus They were also accounts of struggle and resistance, which included claims of worthiness and profound demands for life with dignity. From the Cambridge English Corpus And energy recovered from the heterogeneous fuel of rubbish struggles to be economically competitive. From the Cambridge English Corpus From a handful of scientific consultants and then the heads of struggling forestry administrations, the scientific enterprise had by the late 1940s enlarged considerably. From the Cambridge English Corpus It reflected, moreover, political striving within the psychoanalytic movement and between it and its opponents and enemies in the struggle for recognition. From the Cambridge English Corpus History is still ultimately a question of class struggle, and the developments of the nineteenth century are dominated by the machinations of bourgeois capital. From the Cambridge English Corpus These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with struggle

struggle

These are words often used in combination with struggle.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

armed struggleThey could not count on the same degree of popular support following any decision to start an armed struggle for power. From the Cambridge English Corpus   bitter struggleWhat will happen will be a bitter struggle, a fight, a race. From the Hansard archive Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0   constant struggleThere was a constant struggle against decay here as well, but, following extant paths, these roads at least met something of a popularly felt need. From the Cambridge English Corpus   These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. See all collocations with struggle What is the pronunciation of struggle?

Translations of struggle

in Chinese (Traditional) 努力, 奮鬥，努力，拼搏, 有失敗的危險，苦苦掙扎… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 努力, 奋斗，努力，拼搏, 有失败的危险，苦苦挣扎… See more in Spanish pelear, forcejear, luchar… See more in Portuguese lutar, debater-se, luta… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian झगडणे, आटोकाट प्रयत्न करणे, झटापट होणे… See more 苦労する, 苦心する, 奮闘する… See more çaba sarfetmek, uğraşmak, mücadele etmek… See more lutter, se battre, se dégager… See more lluitar, maldar, forcejar… See more spartelen, worstelen, worsteling… See more சிரமம் அனுபவிக்க மற்றும் ஏதாவது செய்யும் பொருட்டு ஒரு மிக பெரிய முயற்சி செய்ய, தோல்வி அடையவோ அல்லது தோற்கடிக்கப்படும் அபாயத்தில் இருக்க வேண்டும், போராட… See more संघर्ष करना, जूझना, नाकाम होने या हारने के खतरे में होना… See more સંઘર્ષ, નિષ્ફળ થવા અથવા ગુમાવવાના ભયમાં રહો, લડવું… See more vride sig, stritte imod, kæmpe… See more streta, sprattla, kämpa… See more bergelut, berjuang, berusaha keras… See more zappeln, kämpfen, sich quälen… See more slite, streve, kjempe… See more جد و جہد کرنا, سخت محنت کرنا, مشکل حالات سے لڑنا… See more битися, відбиватися, боротися… See more కష్టపడటం, విఫలితము లేదా ఓడిపోయే ప్రమాదంలో ఉండటం, కొట్లాడటం ప్రత్యేకంగా మీ చేతులతో… See more আপ্রাণ চেষ্টা করা, কঠিন অবস্থা থেকে মুক্তি পাওয়ার জোরদার প্রয়াস চালানো, ধ্বস্তাধ্বস্তি করা… See more zmítat se, zápasit, prodírat se… See more memberontak, berjuang, berusaha keras… See more ต่อสู้, ดิ้นรน, กระเสือกกระสน… See more vẫy vùng, vật lộn, gắng sức… See more starać się, zmagać się, szamotać się… See more 고분군투하다, 몸부림치다, 투쟁… See more lottare, fare sforzi, fare fatica… See more Need a translator?

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More meanings of struggle

• class struggle
• power struggle
• struggle on phrasal verb
• be locked in a battle/struggle/dispute

See all meanings

• struggle on phrasal verb

See all phrasal verb meanings

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• English   
  • Verb 
    • struggle (EFFORT)
    • struggle along, through, out, etc.
    • struggle (FIGHT)
  • Noun 
    • struggle (EFFORT)
    • struggle (FIGHT)
• American   
  • Verb 
    • struggle (TRY HARD)
    • struggle (FIGHT)
    • struggle (MOVE)
  • Noun 
    • struggle (FIGHT)
    • struggle (TRYING HARD)
• Business   NounVerb
• Examples
• Collocations

• Translations
• Grammar
• All translations

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