[f. STRUGGLE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of STRUGGLE v.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 823. For with hir struglyng wel and myghtily The theef fil ouer bord al sodeynly.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lv. (1495), 270. This skynne callyd Hernia is … slakyd somtyme by to grete traueylle of body as by grete strogelynge and wrastelynge.
c. 1440. Bone Flor., 1853. In hys armes he can hur folde, Hur rybbes crakyd as they breke wolde, In struglynge can they stryve.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., Pref. *viij b. And in places not a fewe I haue had muche strougleyng & wrastleyng with the faultes of enprientyng in ye bookes.
1592. Greene, 3rd Pt. Conny catching, E 3. Both his handkercher with the chaine, and also his purse … were taken out of his pocket in this strugling.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xxvii. 211. It would … put us to another fatal struggling for libertie and life, more dubious then the former.
1702. Rowe, Tamerl., I. i. 296. With strong Reluctance and Convulsive Struggling.
1830. Carlyle, Richter Again, Ess. 1840, II. 300. No character of this kind … is to be formed without manifold … struggling with the world.
pl. 1615. Chapman, Odyss., XII. 242. They should with much more band Containe my struglings.
1690. T. Burnet, Theory Earth, III. xi. 96. Some Causes impelling the Waters one way, and some another, make intestine struglings and contrary motions.
a. 1715. G. Burnet, Own Time IV. (1724), I. 797. All the strugglings which that party have made ever since that time … did rise out of this.
1783. Med. Commun., I. 303. His strugglings were more violent.
1890. D. Davidson, Mem. Long Life, ii. 29. I confess to some strugglings of the heart as we hurried past the scenes of my boyhood.
† 2. Effervescence. (Cf. STRUGGLE sb. 1 c.) Obs.
1764. Museum Rust., II. 378. You may … try it with vinegar, where the effervescence, or struggling, will be much stronger than in water.
