strive
/strʌɪv
/verb (past strove /strəʊv/ or strived; past participle striven /ˈstrɪv(ə)n/ or strived) [no object]
1Make great efforts to achieve or obtain something: national movements were striving for independence [with infinitive]: we must strive to secure steady growth...
- Some people are perfectionists, constantly striving for excellence.
- Remember that your greatest ethical responsibility is to constantly strive for excellence in everything you do.
- Kirk and company are always striving to improve themselves, yet they revel in humanity's inefficiencies and imperfections.
1.1Struggle or fight vigorously: scholars must strive against bias...
- I couldn't believe I was off the boat - the thing sailors strive against at all times.
- God said to Moses, do not strive against me, or you will die; by faith only can this tribe be saved.
- I also believe the public intellectual has a position in the community that has to be fought for, striven for.
Synonyms
try, try hard, attempt, endeavour, aim, aspire, venture, undertake, seek, make an effort, make every effort, spare no effort, exert oneself, do one's best, do all one can, do one's utmost, give one's all, labour, work, toil, strain, struggle, apply oneself;
have a go at
informal bend/fall/lean over backwards, go all out, give it one's best shot, give it a whirl, have a crack at, have a stab at, pull out all the stops
formal essay
struggle, fight, battle, combat, contend, grapple;
campaign, war, crusade
Derivatives
striver
- Well, the locals call them strivers now, but the Dutch had another word for them.
- If any one thing really characterizes this big boiling pot of diversity dubbed ‘America,’ it is that we're a nation of strivers.
- Certainly, immigrant strivers have always done astonishingly well in national academic contests, not to mention in school in general.
Origin
Middle English: shortening of Old French estriver; related to estrif 'strife'.
Strive and strife both come from shortened forms of Old French estriver ‘strive’. As well as expressing conflict, the word in early examples meant ‘striving together’.