Sentence:  His unsuccessful <WSD>strivings</WSD> to give up drink are represented as religious strivings ; he keeps a bottle in a wardrobe at home , and `` before this wardrobe Praisegod Piepsam had before now gone literally on his knees , and in his wrestlings had bitten his tongue - and still in the end capitulated '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  an effortful attempt to attain a goal