tug of war
Americannoun
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an athletic contest between two teams at opposite ends of a rope, each team trying to drag the other over a line.
-
a hard-fought, critical struggle for supremacy.
noun
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a contest in which two people or teams pull opposite ends of a rope in an attempt to drag the opposition over a central line
-
any hard struggle, esp between two equally matched factions
Etymology
Origin of tug of war
1670–80 tug of war for def. 2; 1875–80 tug of war for def. 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It took a messy tug of war with RCR in the middle of the following season to secure his services for 2023.
The tug of war between a sound market backdrop and rising external risks is likely to continue, with offsetting pressures potentially holding back broader index gains into the coming weeks.
From Barron's
We played tug of war for a few seconds, then he turned his end loose and ran back down the trail a little ways.
From Literature
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And, along the way, influence a geopolitical tug of war involving a huge U.S.-U.K. military base.
The media giant is in the middle of a takeover tug of war between Paramount Skydance and Netflix, and it’s anyone’s guess who will win.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.