From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From grapple + -er.
grappler (plural grapplers)
- One who grapples.
1912, Harold Bindloss, Vane of the Timberlands, page 19:They were cheerful optimists; indomitable grapplers with forest and flood, who did almost incredible things with ax and saw and giant-powder.
- A wrestler; one who fights by wrestling.