noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An act in which something is grappled or grappled with. gerund

   "[…] the Schoenberg is irresistible to young hearts in their initial grapplings with great questions of life, death, love and suffering."

2. 2
   the sport of hand-to-hand struggle between unarmed contestants who try to throw each other down wordnet
3. 3
   A grappling hook or grappling iron.
4. 4
   the act of engaging in close hand-to-hand combat wordnet
5. 5
   A small anchor; a grapnel.

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of grapple form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

wrestlinggrapplegrappling hookgrappling hookgrappling irongrappling iron

Example

More examples

"Party leaders are grappling with flaws in the party system."

Related phrases

grappling hookgrappling iron

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.