struggling; floundering; pawing
Refers to desperate physical or mental struggling, often in a hopeless situation. Also used for animals pawing the ground. The kana form is standard.
His desperate struggling was in vain, and the team lost.
The horse is pawing at the ground in front of the gate.
Usually written in kana; the kanji form 足掻き is less common but still encountered.
Kanji form; less common than kana. The variant 足搔き is a search-only form.
Derived from the verb あがく (to struggle, to paw). The kanji 足掻く literally means 'foot scratching', reflecting the original physical sense.