Definition

Adjective 1. Engaged in a difficult effort or fight, especially to achieve something or overcome adversity: The word describes the state of making a strenuous effort against difficulties, often with limited success or while facing significant hardship. It frequently implies a lack of resources, such as money or recognition. 2. Having financial difficulty; barely managing: This specific usage describes a person, business, or organization that is having serious economic problems and is finding it hard to survive or succeed.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The struggling artist worked a day job to pay for his paints and canvas.
  • After the economic downturn, many small businesses found themselves struggling to stay open.
  • She is a struggling single mother, doing her best to provide for her children.
  • The team is struggling to understand the new software.

Advanced Usage

• "to be struggling with [something]": To be having great difficulty dealing with a particular problem, task, or emotion.
  • He is struggling with a difficult decision.
  • Many students struggle with advanced calculus.
• "a struggling [noun]": A common collocation to describe a person or entity in a particular field who is facing hardship.
  • a struggling writer / actor / entrepreneur / economy

Variants and Related Words

• Struggle (verb): To make a great effort against difficulties.
• Struggle (noun): A forceful effort; a fight or contest.
• Striving (adj/verb): Making great efforts to achieve something. (Similar to "struggling" but often with a more positive, determined connotation, less focused on hardship).

Synonyms

• Striving: Endeavoring earnestly.
• Battling: Fighting against something.
• Grappling: Engaging in a close struggle.
• Hard-pressed: Facing severe difficulty.

Related Phrases

• Financially struggling: Specifically having money problems.
  • The financially struggling family could not afford a vacation.
• Struggling against the odds: Trying to succeed despite very low probability of success.
  • The small company was struggling against the odds to compete with the industry giant.

Adjective

1. engaged in a struggle to overcome especially poverty or obscurity
   • a financially struggling theater
   • struggling artists