Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Contest

Con·test′ (kŏn·tĕst′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Contested; p. pr. & vb. n. Contesting.] [F. contester, fr. L. contestari to call to witness, contestari litem to introduce a lawsuit by calling witnesses, to bring an action; con- + testari to be a witness, testic witness. See Testify.] 1. To make a subject of dispute, contention, litigation, or emulation; to contend for; to call in question; to controvert; to oppose; to dispute.

The people . . . contested not what was done. Locke.

Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequenty repeated, few more contested than this. J. D. Morell.

2. To strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend; as, the troops contested every inch of ground.

3. (Law) To make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist; as a claim, by course of law; to controvert.

To contest an election. (Polit.) (a) To strive to be elected. (b) To dispute the declared result of an election.

Syn. — To dispute; controvert; debate; litigate; oppose; argue; contend.

Con·test′, v. i. To engage in contention, or emulation; to contend; to strive; to vie; to emulate; — followed usually by with.

The difficulty of an argument adds to the pleasure of contesting with it, when there are hopes of victory. Bp. Burnet.

Of man, who dares in pomp with Jove contest? Pope.

Con′test (kŏn′tĕst), n. 1. Earnest dispute; strife in argument; controversy; debate; altercation.

Leave all noisy contests, all immodest clamors and brawling language. I. Watts.

2. Earnest struggle for superiority, victory, defense, etc.; competition; emulation; strife in arms; conflict; combat; encounter.

The late battle had, in effect, been a contest between one usurper and another. Hallam.

It was fully expected that the contest there would be long and fierce. Macaulay.

Syn. — Conflict; combat; battle; encounter; shock; struggle; dispute; altercation; debate; controvesy; difference; disagreement; strife. — Contest, Conflict, Combat, Encounter. Contest is the broadest term, and had originally no reference to actual fighting. It was, on the contrary, a legal term signifying to call witnesses, and hence came to denote first a struggle in argument, and then a struggle for some common object between opposing parties, usually one of considerable duration, and implying successive stages or acts. Conflict denotes literally a close personal engagement, in which sense it is applied to actual fighting. It is, however, more commonly used in a figurative sense to denote strenuous or direct opposition; as, a mental conflict; conflicting interests or passions; a conflict of laws. An encounter is a direct meeting face to face. Usually it is a hostile meeting, and is then very nearly coincident with conflict; as, an encounter of opposing hosts. Sometimes it is used in a looser sense; as, "this keen encounter of our wits." Shak. Combat is commonly applied to actual fighting, but may be used figuratively in reference to a strife or words or a struggle of feeling.

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 “?”.