gainstrive

Etymology

From gain- + strive.

gainstrive means to strive against; to resist, oppose. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why this word is great

GAINSTRIVE — [Verb] To strive against; to resist or oppose with active contention. From the English prefix gain- (from Old English gegn-, meaning "against") + the verb strive (from Old French estriver, meaning "to contend, quarrel"). Unlike "resist," a more general and often passive withstanding, or "contend," a struggle aimed at victory, to gainstrive is to expend energy purely in opposition, where the striving is the resistance itself. It is the salmon's muscle-burning ascent of the cataract, the scholar meticulously refuting a dominant theory line by line, or the wearying push of a river stone that, for a season, alters the current's chosen course—a quiet testament to the profound fatigue of standing one's ground.

verb

To strive against; to resist, oppose.
To resist; to fight back.“For on the spoile of women he doth live, / Whose bodies chast, when ever in his powre / He may them catch unable to gainstrive, / He with his shamefull lust doth first deflowre, / And afterwardes themselves doth cruelly devoure.”