tug-of-war vs battle

tug-of-war and battle both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
tug-of-war	Yes	No	No	No
battle	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, battle is a hypernym of tug-of-war; that is, battle is a word with a broader meaning than tug-of-war:

Other hypernyms of tug-of-war include conflict, struggle.

tug-of-war (noun)	battle (noun)
any hard struggle between equally matched groups	a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war
a contest in which teams pull of opposite ends of a rope; the team dragged across a central line loses	an energetic attempt to achieve something
	an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals)

tug-of-war (verb)	battle (verb)
	battle or contend against in or as if in a battle