tug-of-war

English Thesaurus

1. any hard struggle between equally matched groups (noun.act)

hypernym	:	battle, conflict, struggle,
definition	:	an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals) (noun.act)

2. a contest in which teams pull of opposite ends of a rope; the team dragged across a central line loses (noun.event)

hypernym	:	athletic competition, athletic contest, athletics,
definition	:	a contest between athletes (noun.event)