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A strife for the mastery; hostile contest; battle; struggle; fighting.

A fight or fighting; contest; strife. [Archaic] On the day of the Trinity next ensuing was a great debate . . . and in that murder there were slain . . . fourscore. R. of Gloucester. But question fierce and proud reply Gave signal soon of dire debate. Sir W. Scott.

Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. 2 Thess. iii. 6. Savages fighting disorderly with stones. Sir W. Raleigh.

To prepare for fighting, as a gamecock, by trimming the hackles and cutting off the comb and wattles. To dub a fly, to dress a fishing fly. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. -- To dub out (Plastering), to fill out, as an uneven surface, to a plane, or to carry out a series of small projections.

e act or practice of fighting in single combat. Also adj. [Written also duelling.]

cellence or good fortune and a longing to possess it. A woman does not envy a man for his fighting courage, nor a man a woman for her beauty. Collier. Whoever envies another confesses his superiority. Rambler.

e. A thousand shall fall at thy side. Ps. xci. 7. He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. Byron.

a musician holds a fiddle, hence the name; -- called also calling crab, soldier crab, and fighting crab.

r wage, as a conflict, or battle; to win or gain by struggle, as one's way; to sustain by fighting, as a cause. He had to fight his way through the world. Macaulay. I have fought a good fight. 2 Tim. iv. 7.

game. [Colloq.] -- To die game, to maintain a bold, unyielding spirit to the last; to die fighting.

A staff formerly used in fighting beasts on the stage. [Obs.] Bailey.

Seizure by, or grasp of, the hand; also, close quarters in fighting. Hudibras.

To arm with a gaff, as a cock for fighting.

gin. All other faces borrowed hence Their light and grace. Suckling. Whence come wars and fightings among you Come they not hence, even of your lusts James. iv. 1.

Out of the combat; disabled from fighting.

by fair inference, or by construction of law, when not include virtually; as, war implies fighting. Where a mulicious act is proved, a mulicious intention is implied. Bp. Sherlock. When a man employs a laborer to work for him, . . . the act of hiring implies an obligation and a promise that he shall pay him a reasonabl…

To deprive of the use of a limb, so as to render a person on fighting less able either to defend himself or to annoy his adversary. By the ancient law of England he that maimed any man whereby he lost any part of his body, was sentenced to lose the like part. Blackstone.

A match at cockfighting. "My lord would ride twenty miles . . . to see a main fought." Thackeray.

Engaged in warfare; fighting; combating; serving as a soldier. -- Mil"i*tant*ly, adv. At which command the powers militant... Moved on in silence. Milton. Church militant, the Christian church on earth, which is supposed to be engaged in a constant warfare against its enemies, and is thus distinguished from the church…

a supposed case. There is a difference between mooting and pleading; between fencing and fighting. B. Jonson.