Forms: α. 1 wræstlere, 4 wrestlere, 5 -telare, -teler, 5– wrestler, 6 wreastler. β. 3 wrastlare, 4–5 -t(e)lere, 5 -teler, -tyller, 6 -tlear, -tleer, 6–7, Sc. and dial. 9 wrastler, 9 dial. wrossler. γ. 4–5 wristeler(e, 4 -tilere, 9 dial. russ(e)ler. [OE. wrǽstlere, agent-noun f. *wrǽstlian WRESTLE v. + -ER1. Cf. older Flem. worsteler, Du. worstelaar.]
1. One who wrestles; esp. one who practises or is skilled in the art of wrestling, as an athlete.
c. 1050. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 431. Luctatur [sic], wræstlere.
a. 1225. [see WRESTLE v. 1 b β].
1382. Wyclif, Bible, Pref. Ep. vii. (1850), 70/1. Abacuc, a strong wristeler [1388 wrastelere] and a sharp, stondith vpon his waard.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, II. 383. Minotaurus was a grete man and huge,… and a wiȝt wrastlere.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, I. 94. By Iacob ys vndyrstond a wrasteler.
1497. Bp. Alcock, Mons Perfect., C iij 14. A wresteler … intendeth to haue ye vyctory of hym yt he wrestled wt.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., Table, Diogenes mocked a wrastlear.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, B ij b. One listed to see wrestlers bestirre them in their play.
1615–6. Boys, Wks. (1622), 190. Runners and wrastlers contend for a crowne that shall perish.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 444. He embraces him and … lifts him above Ground, as Wrestlers do, to throw him down again.
1711. Budgell, Spect., No. 161, ¶ 3. She was overlooking a Ring of Wrestlers.
1785. Lond. Chron., March, 262/3. He was celebrated as a prize fighter, a wrestler, and a cricketer.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 44. When wrestlers join to tug each other down.
1876. Gladstone, Glean. (1879), II. 351. As a Cumbrian wrestler struggles … to get a good grip of his antagonist.
1901. N. Lloyd, Chronic Loafer, vi. I was the best wrastler in the walley.
fig. 1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, xvii. 317. The prayers of Mr. Knox … were mighty wrestlers with God.
1721. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 596. He is … a great favourite, and mighty wrestler in prayer.
1814. Cary, Dante, Parad., XII. 52. The hallow’d wrestler [St. Dominic], gentle to his own, And to his enemies terrible.
2. fig. One who strives or contends with difficulties, against adverse conditions, etc.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xiii. 11. For iacob is als mykill at say as wrestlere or supplantere of syn. Ibid., Cant., 514. Iacob,… þat is, wristilere agayns vicys.
c. 1454. Pecock, Folewer, 114. In hem þat ben with passions bisi wrastlers.
1577. Hanmer, Eccl. Hist., To Rdr. The valiant wrastlers, and inuincible champions of Christ Iesu.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, xv. He shall see in those young things … little wrestlers with him for his daily bread.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, II. iv. 72. Experienced wrestlers with fate and fortune.
3. Western U.S. One who throws cattle for the purpose of branding.
1888. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., April, 861/2. The calf-wrestlers, grimy with blood, dust, and sweat, work like beavers.
4. Comb., as wrestler-like; wrestler frog, the S. American ‘wrestling’ frog, Rana luctator.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, xv. 329. He will prooue faire, fat, ful of bloud, & b[l]ockish, which habit Hippocrates called wrastler-like.
1616. Chapman, trans. Musæus, G 6. Notus and Boreas wrastler like imbrace.
1892. W. H. Hudson, Naturalist in La Plata, iv. 77. Plate, Wrestler frog. [Ibid., 76. The frog,… catching two of my fingers round with its fore legs, administered a hug.]
