[f. next. Cf. WARSLE sb.]
1. Without article. The action of wrestling or struggling; the fact of having wrestled. Also fig.
1593. Q. Eliz., Boeth., IV. pr. vii. 99. So ought not a wise man beare with greefe, fortunes wrestell [L. certamen fortunæ].
1796. Burns, Poem on Life, vii. His pangs, And murd’ring wrestle, As … he hangs A gibbet’s tassel.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. ix. II. 118. War in Italy, universal spasm of wrestle there, being now the expectation of foolish mankind.
1883. Century Mag., Oct., 819/1. Their [sycamores’] limbs gnarled and twisted as if they had won their places by splendid wrestle.
1915. ‘Q’ (Quiller-Couch), Nicky-Nan, Reservist, xvii. 224. He paused, seemingly in wrestle with an inward reluctance.
2. A struggle between two persons, each trying to throw the other by grasping his body or limbs; also, a wrestling-bout according to rules; a wrestling-match. Also with over, up.
1670. Milton, Hist. Eng., I. 13. Corineus,… Whom in a Wrestle the Giant catching aloft, with a terrible hugg broke three of his Ribs.
1849. Lytton, K. Arthur, I. lxxvi. Beyond the tilt-yard spread the larger space, For the strong wrestle and the breathless race.
1854. W. Waterworth, Orig. Anglicanism, 196. Fondness for the wrestle and the race prevailed.
1893. Robinson & Gilpin, Wrestling & Wrestlers, 54. On the following day, the loser in the wrestle up proved victorious. Ibid., 85. Owing to some oversight on the part of the umpires, they decided it must be a wrestle over.
b. fig. A struggle or contest.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., iii. 4. Both parties in the wrestle professing earnest wishes of peace to us.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xi. III. 62. The body politic … straining every nerve in a wrestle for life or death.
1893. Horton, Gospel Entering Europe, 27. [Paul’s] long wrestle with spiritual realities in the desert of Arabia.
