verb, noun — 9 senses
Etymology From Middle English taven, from Old Norse *tafa, from Proto-Germanic *tabōn (“to grope, feel”). Cognate with Faroese tava (“to endeavour, exert oneself”), Norwegian Nynorsk tava (“to toil in vain”), German zabeln (“to move convulsively, sprawl, flounder”).
To sprawl with the arms and legs; kick or fidget with the feet.
To toss or tumble oneself about; act violently, rage, throw a fit.
To struggle, toil, strive, labour.
To trudge, walk heavily.
Ambitransitive To wrestle.
Dialectal To hurry along; gad about.
Dialectal To distress, overtire.
Etymology From Middle English taven, from Old Norse *tafa, from Proto-Germanic *tabōn (“to grope, feel”). Cognate with Faroese tava (“to endeavour, exert oneself”), Norwegian Nynorsk tava (“to toil in vain”), German zabeln (“to move convulsively, sprawl, flounder”).
Dialectal A difficulty, struggle.
Dialectal A hurry, stir, commotion.
Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.