From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgrapplegrap‧ple /ˈɡræpəl/ verb [intransitive] FIGHTto fight or struggle with someone, holding them tightly SYN wrestlegrapple with Two men grappled with a guard at the door. → grapple with something→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
grapple• Memory and imagination were grappling at each other's throats, and these people would lose if he lay here much longer.• We grapple on the wet ground - both of us with a hand on his gun.• But it also stirred feelings of guilt and pity within me which I am still grappling to explain to myself.• Finally the book also exposes you to the experience of change through a number of stories of people grappling with behavior-driven challenges.• Together, they grapple with concerns that confront us all as citizens.• Their history, their grappling with the meaning of freedom, was here and now.• This 1995 work is his first to grapple with the social changes of the new political reality.grapple with• There is no environmental policy in a country that is still grappling with increasing poverty.• A young man was grappling with the guard.• He's never had to grapple with the issues that most principals deal with.• The authorities have been grappling with the problem for a decade, but cars still choke the streets in the rush hour.Origin grapple (1300-1400) Old French grappelle, from grape; → GRAPE 