struggle

To try to do something that is very difficult–especially when an obstacle prevents the achievement of a goal– is to struggle. You can use this word as a verb or as a noun for situations that require great effort.

These sentences show how "struggle" can be used as a verb:

• Juan struggled to finish all of his work on time.
• Kate struggles with her addiction to cigarettes.
• We watched a fisherman struggle with a very large fish that was on his line, but he lost it.
• A fox caught in a trap struggled to free itself, but it couldn’t do it.
• The young woman is still struggling with the death of her mother.
• The people affected by the war are struggling every day to survive.

These sentences show how "struggle" can be used as a noun:

• On some days it’s a struggle for Steve to wake up in the morning. He suffers from depression.
• Martin Luther King Jr. led the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States.
• The struggle against racism, prejudice, and discrimination in the United States continues.

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January 21, 2013