Verb

To try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently.

He strove to excel.

To struggle in opposition; to be in contention or dispute; to contend; to contest.

to strive against fate

to strive for the truth

* Denham

Now private pity strove with public hate, / Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate.

To vie; to compete as a rival.

* Milton

[Not] that sweet grove / Of Daphne, by Orontes and the inspired / Castalian spring, might with this paradise / Of Eden strive .

Verb

(emulat)

To attempt to equal or be the same as.

To copy or imitate, especially a person.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Wolverhampton 1 - 2 Newcastle , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The Magpies are unbeaten and enjoying their best run since 1994, although few would have thought the class of 2011 would come close to emulating their ancestors.}}

(obsolete) To feel a rivalry with; to be jealous of, to envy.

* 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 146:

But the councell then present emulating my successe, would not thinke it fit to spare me fortie men to be hazzarded in those unknowne regions [...].

(computing) of a program or device: to imitate another program or device