tug of war
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A struggle for control or power between two opposing sides
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
một cuộc đấu tranh để kiểm soát hoặc quyền lực giữa hai phía đối lập
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a rope-pulling competition
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company is engaged in a tug of war with its union
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “tug of war” mean?
A struggle for control or power between two opposing sides Literally: a rope-pulling competition
Is “tug of war” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.