Search the Dictionary

A process of reasoning, or a controversy made up of rational proofs; argumentation; discussion; disputation. The argument is about things, but names. Locke.

To assail with unfriendly speech or writing; to begin a controversy with; to attempt to overthrow or bring into disrepute, by criticism or satire; to censure; as, to attack a man, or his opinions, in a pamphlet.

A court held in Derbyshire, in England, for deciding controversies between miners. Blount.

anding; to conceal; to deceive. Such darkness blinds the sky. Dryden. The state of the controversy between us he endeavored, with all his art, to blind and confound. Stillingfleet.

fleet. I am sensible I have not disposed my materials to adbide the test of a captious controversy. Bwike.

An invitation to engage in a contest or controversy of any kind; a defiance; specifically, a summons to fight a duel; also, the letter or message conveying the summons. A challenge to controversy. Goldsmith.

Strife; contention; controversy. [Obs.] P. Plowman.

That which ends a dispute or controversy; a decisive argument.

Jurisdiction, or the power given by law to hear and decide controversies.

One who engages in combat. "The mighty combatants." Milton. A controversy which long survived the original combatants. Macaulay

l comers, all who come, or offer, to take part in a matter, especially in a contest or controversy. "To prove it against all comers." Bp. Stillingfleet.

Mutual agreement to terms or conditions for the settlement of a difference or controversy; also, the terms or conditions of settlement; agreement. Thus we are agreed: I crave our composition may be written. Shak.

To adjust and settle by mutual concessions; to compound. The controversy may easily be compromised. Fuller.

Pertaining to a Presbyterian consistory; -- a contemptuous term of 17th century controversy. You fall next on the consistorian schismatics; for so you call Presbyterians. Milton.

Strife in words; controversy; altercation quarrel; dispute; as, a bone of contention. Contentions and strivings about the law. Titus iii. 9.

Contested; litigated; litigious; having power to decide controversy. Contentious jurisdiction (Eng. Eccl. Law), jurisdiction over matters in controversy between parties, in contradistinction to voluntary jurisdiction, or that exercised upon matters not opposed or controverted.

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.

s own, without right; as, the conversion of a horse. Or bring my action of conversion And trover for my goods. Hudibras.

Liable to be debated; disputable; subject to controversy or contention; open to question or dispute; as, a debatable question. The Debatable Land or Ground, a tract of land between the Esk and the Sark, claimed by both England and Scotland; the Batable Ground.

ussion for the purpose of elucidating truth or influencing action; strife in argument; controversy; as, the debates in Parliament or in Congress. Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate. Pope.