“struggles” is a form of
struggle
/ˈstɹʌɡəl/ noun, verb
Forms struggles struggling struggled stroggell strogell
- noun A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
- noun (figurative) Strife, contention, great effort.
- verb (intransitive) To strive, to labour in difficulty, to fight (for or against), to contend. “During the centuries, the people of Ireland struggled constantly to assert their right to govern themselves.”
- verb (intransitive) To have difficulty with something. “One of the doctor’s patients struggled with depression.”
- verb (intransitive) To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body. “She struggled to escape from her assailant's grasp.”
Synonyms
agonize battle conflict fight clamber scramble shin shinny skin sputter contend
Etymology
From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin; 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”),
Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Also 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”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.
- verb To use great efforts; to labor hard; to strive; to contend forcibly; as, to struggle to save one's life; to struggle with the waves; to struggle with adversity.
- noun A violent effort or efforts with contortions of the body; agony; distress.
- noun Great labor; forcible effort to obtain an object, or to avert an evil. Macaulay.
Etymology [OE. strogelen; cf. Icel. strj to stroke, to beat, to flog, Sw. stryka to stroke, to strike, Dan. stryge, G. straucheln to stumble. Cf. Stroll.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “struggle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details