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Glite Dictionary
Greco-Roman wrestling

Greco-Roman wrestling

1 4.2
A style of wrestling where fighters can only hold above the waist and cannot use their legs
  • noun
  • /ˈɡrɛkoʊˈroʊmən ˈrɛslɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : lucha grecorromana
  • He has been training for years to compete in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympics.
  • won Greco-Roman wrestling

Examples

  • The air is so cold and clear, and the sea so calm, and there, just there, if you shade the Arctic sunlight from your eyes, you can see a flat-topped chip off an old iceberg floating in an otherwise empty expanse of blue water, and on the ice, a moocow, a huge dog, and two naked white men engaged in Greco-Roman wrestling.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • -I am a master of Greco-Roman wrestling.

    The Ladies Man (2000)

  • My Sport: Greco-Roman wrestling.

    The Ladies Man (2000)

  • However, the games eventually took place on three days of the first week of January 1920, and included track-and-field competition, Greco-Roman wrestling, and tug-of-war.

    Academic text (1994)

  • In Greco-Roman wrestling, competitors cannot change their grip below the waist during a match.

  • The coach emphasized the importance of upper body strength in Greco-Roman wrestling techniques.

Synonyms

wrestling
vsGreco-Roman wrestling
270 1.4

A sport where two people hold, push, or throw each other to make the other person's shoulders touch the ground

restricts holds below the waist and bans using legs for attack or defense
grappling
vsGreco-Roman wrestling
1 4.8

Fighting where people hold and wrestle each other without hitting

is a specific rule set that bans lower body holds and leg attacks

How Restrictive

Greco-Roman wrestling
  • Specialized
1 4.2
freestyle
9 4.1

Surface Forms

Greco-Roman wrestling singular
Greco-Roman wrestlings plural

Morphology

Greco-Roman + wrestling

The phrase literally combines 'Greco-Roman' (pertaining to Greek and Roman tradition) with 'wrestling', so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it denotes a particular historical/style-based form of the sport. The precise technical rules (e.g. no holds below the waist) are specialized and not predictable from the words, but the general meaning as a distinct style of wrestling is transparently compositional.

Etymology

Greco-Roman wrestling gets its name from people who wanted to copy the way wrestlers look in old Greek and Roman pictures and statues, so they called the style Greco-Roman to suggest fighting with the arms and upper body only. That's why the sport means a form of wrestling where you may not hold below the waist and must use 'upper body' moves only.