as in skirmishes
a physical dispute between opposing individuals or groups
a small tussle on the basketball court was quickly broken up
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in wrestles
to seize and attempt to unbalance one another for the purpose of achieving physical mastery
puppies tussling with one another, rolling over and over on the carpet
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tussles
Arkansas Online, 7 Dec. 2025
Winter’s vocal presence imagines a fearless indie oddball like Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus going for the full prattling gusto of the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger; the band tussles and sways exhilaratingly underfoot.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
Winslet’s Julia and Riseborough’s Molly are forced to confront their long-running feud while everyone tussles with their bubbling grief.
—Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 26 Nov. 2025
Paired with zucchini spears and pine nuts, your tongue tussles with pillowy soft textures and crunch.
—Lyndsay C. Green, Freep.com, 31 Oct. 2025
Lonergan has been in his fair share of tussles for minutes between the sticks and thinks, in a lot of cases, goalkeepers should be treated like outfield players, where in-form backups retain their starts.
—Beren Cross, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
And how their play-tussles tended to end up.
—Kansas City Star, 9 Oct. 2025
Uber, Bolt, and other entrants in the space will also have to be cautious on their pricing strategies to avoid regulatory action as was witnessed in their previous tussles over taxi-hailing services with government agencies such as Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority.
—Martin K.n Siele, semafor.com, 3 Oct. 2025
Raven is ever attentive to the imaging of the West as a kind of battleground, where surveillance (and the camera’s inexorable links to the military apparatus) tussles with sentimentality in a centuries-long project from which the national psyche cannot seem to unlatch.
—Anne Reeve, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
Noun
As a result, high borrowing costs and legal tussles with restive foreign investors have left the country unable to take on debt abroad for most of the past two decades.
—Arkansas Online, 7 Dec. 2025
Winter’s vocal presence imagines a fearless indie oddball like Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus going for the full prattling gusto of the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger; the band tussles and sways exhilaratingly underfoot.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
Winslet’s Julia and Riseborough’s Molly are forced to confront their long-running feud while everyone tussles with their bubbling grief.
—Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 26 Nov. 2025
Paired with zucchini spears and pine nuts, your tongue tussles with pillowy soft textures and crunch.
—Lyndsay C. Green, Freep.com, 31 Oct. 2025
Lonergan has been in his fair share of tussles for minutes between the sticks and thinks, in a lot of cases, goalkeepers should be treated like outfield players, where in-form backups retain their starts.
—Beren Cross, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
And how their play-tussles tended to end up.
—Kansas City Star, 9 Oct. 2025
Uber, Bolt, and other entrants in the space will also have to be cautious on their pricing strategies to avoid regulatory action as was witnessed in their previous tussles over taxi-hailing services with government agencies such as Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority.
—Martin K.n Siele, semafor.com, 3 Oct. 2025
Raven is ever attentive to the imaging of the West as a kind of battleground, where surveillance (and the camera’s inexorable links to the military apparatus) tussles with sentimentality in a centuries-long project from which the national psyche cannot seem to unlatch.
—Anne Reeve, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tussles
Noun
-
Hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced from their homes in both countries when border skirmishes broke out for the second time this year.—
David Zimmermann,
The Washington Examiner,
27 Dec. 2025
-
For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817-kilometer (508-mile) land border – a dispute that has occasionally exploded into skirmishes and fighting.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
27 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
This season, silence is louder than words, loyalties are tested, and as each woman wrestles with the past, not everyone will make it to the other side the same.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
5 Jan. 2026
-
The police officer then wrestles Newman to the ground, and no shots are fired.—
Kate Reilly,
NBC news,
21 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
Since Assad’s ousting, Syria has seen flare-ups of deadly sectarian violence, with clashes erupting between security forces and those loyal to the former president, including in Syria’s coastal Latakia region in March.—
Sophie Tanno,
CNN Money,
9 Nov. 2025
-
As for South Sudan, a senior United Nations official said earlier this week that the ongoing conflict in Sudan is causing destabilization in South Sudan, including armed clashes and food insecurity.—
Dan Gooding,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Eleven finds her way to them, jumping inside the Mind Flayer to destroy Vecna, who’s controlling it from within, while Will fights telepathically from the outside, no longer empathetic or afraid to go toe to toe with his former saboteur.—
Yohana Desta,
Rolling Stone,
4 Jan. 2026
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Ucg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images Novo Nordisk’s shift from a market darling to a serious underperformer has set the stage for a transitional 2026 as the Danish drugmaker fights to regain investor confidence in its weight loss business.—
Elsa Ohlen,
CNBC,
1 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
The facility, which is surrounded by the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, also has led to separate legal battles in federal court.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
6 Jan. 2026
-
Soon the scene devolved into individual battles between officers and rioters.—
Jamie Thompson,
The Atlantic,
6 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tussles.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tussles. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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