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A line inclosing or forming the extremity of a piece of ground, or field of combat; hence, in the plural (lists), the ground or field inclosed for a race or combat. Chaucer. In measured lists to toss the weighty lance. Pope. To enter the lists, to accept a challenge, or engage in contest.

k in the face, to face or meet with boldness or confidence; hence, sometimes, to meet for combat. -- To look out, to seek for; as, prudent persons look out associates good reputation.

The chief officer of arms, whose duty it was, in ancient times, to regulate combats in the lists. Johnson.

A fight in which the combatants are mingled

In the English naval service, the second rank attained by a combatant officer after a term of service as naval cadet. Having served three and a half years in this rank, and passed an examination, he is eligible to promotion to the rank of lieutenant.

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 duel; single combat. "The duello or monomachia." Sir W. Scott.

One who fights in single combat; a duelist.

The utmost or last extremity. Combat à outrance, a fight to the end, or to the death.

Hence: To hold apart; to stand between; to intervene betwixt, as combatants. The stumbling night did part our weary powers. Shak.

th that they believes he swore truly; or vulgar, which was by fire or water ordeal, or by combat. See Ordeal. Wharton. Let him put me to my purgation. Shak.

f., in Cuba, the Philippines, etc., during the revolution of 1895-98, one of the rural noncombatants who were concentrated by the military authorities in areas surrounding the fortified towns, and later were reconcentrated in the smaller limits of the towns themselves.

Crying for mercy, as a combatant in the trial by battle; yielding; cowardly; mean-spirited; craven. "This recreant knight." Spenser.

of two persons or bodies; a collision; especially, a meetingg in opposition or contest; a combat, action, or engagement. The justling chiefs in rude rencounter join. Granville.

A fighting with a shadow; a mock contest; an imaginary or futile combat. [Written also scimachy.] Cowley.

ng but irregular intervals, for three days and nights, with sacrifices, theatrical shows, combats, sports, and the like. -- Secular music, any music or songs not adapted to sacred uses. -- Secular hymn or poem, a hymn or poem composed for the secular games, or sung or rehearsed at those games.

Performed by one person, or one on each side; as, a single combat. These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, . . . Who now defles thee thrice ti single fight. Milton.

ed in by only one on a side; single. [Obs.] To try the matter thus together in a singular combat. Holinshed.

A slight fight in war; a light or desultory combat between detachments from armies, or between detached and small bodies of troops.

ip or cut, as in the hair of a beast. Snick and snee Etym: [cf. D. snee, snede, a cut], a combat with knives. [Obs.] Wiseman.