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.
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.
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.
Usage: {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.