Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Combat

Com′bat, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Combated; p. pr. & vb. n. Combating.] [F. combattre; pref. com- + battre to beat, fr. L. battuere to strike. See Batter.] To struggle or contend, as with an opposing force; to fight.

To combat with a blind man I disdain. Milton.

After the fall of the republic, the Romans combated only for the choice of masters. Gibbon.

Com′bat, v. t. To fight with; to oppose by force, argument, etc.; to contend against; to resist.

When he the ambitious Norway combated. Shak.

And combated in silence all these reasons. Milton.

Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled. Goldsmith.

Syn. — To fight against; resist; oppose; withstand; oppugn; antagonize; repel; resent.

Com′bat, n. [Cf. F. combat.] 1. A fight; a contest of violence; a struggle for supremacy.

My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st. Shak.

The noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina. Shak.

2. (Mil.) An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies.

Single combat, one in which a single combatant meets a single opponent, as in the case of David and Goliath; also, a duel.

Syn. — A battle; engagement; conflict; contest; contention; struggle; fight, strife. See Battle, Contest.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.