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To resist or antagonize by physical means, or by arguments, etc.; to contend against; to confront; to resist; to withstand; as, to oppose the king in battle; to oppose a bill in Congress.

To contend, or take part, in a game; as, to play ball; hence, to gamble; as, he played for heavy stakes.

To contend; to struggle. [Obs.] Chaucer.

ortunity of choosing; as, to give him his preference. Leave the critics on either side to contend about the preference due to this or that sort of poetry. Dryden. Knowledge of things alone gives a value to our reasonings, and preference of one man's knowledge over another's. Locke.

One who contends for a prize; a prize fighter; a challenger. [Obs.] Shak. Appeareth no man yet to answer the prizer. B. Jonson.

To contend for; to defend; to vindicate. [Obs.] Hammond.

To dispute angrily, or violently; to wrangle; to scold; to altercate; to contend; to fight. Beasts called sociable quarrel in hunger and lust. Sir W. Temple.

To run swiftly; to contend in a race; as, the animals raced over the ground; the ships raced from port to port.

One who, or that which, races, or contends in a race; esp., a race horse. And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize. Pope.

unter accusation. Accusations and recriminations passed back ward and forward between the contending parties. Macaulay.

Ring thrush (Zoöl.), the ring ousel. -- The prize ring, the ring in which prize fighters contend; prize fighters, collectively. -- The ring. (a) The body of sporting men who bet on horse races. [Eng.] (b) The prize ring.

To contend in a race; hence, to enter into a contest; to become a candidate; as, to run for Congress. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize So run, that ye may obtain. 1 Cor. ix. 24.

Exception; reservation. Contend not with those that are too strong for us, but still with a saving to honesty. L'Estrange. Savings bank, a bank in which savings or earnings are deposited and put at interest.

Hence, to strive or contend tumultuously; to struggle confusedly or at haphazard. A gallant man had rather fight to great disadvantage in the field, in an orderly way, than scuffle with an undisciplined rabble. Eikon Basilike.

A person with whom two or more contending parties deposit the subject matter of the controversy; one who mediates between two parties; a mediator; an umpire or referee. Bouvier.

To make serene. Heaven and earth, as if contending, vie To raise his being, and serene his soul. Thomson.

r, horror, or distress. What happier natures shrink at with affright, The hard inhabitant contends is right. Pope. They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task. Jowett (Thucyd.)

To use the fists and arms scientifically in attack or defense; to contend or combat with the fists, as for exercise or amusement; to box. Made believe to spar at Paul with great science. Dickens.

To contend for superiority in an unseemly maner; to scuffle; to struggle; to wrangle; to quarrel.

To throw squibs; to utter sarcatic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute; as, to squib a little debate. [Colloq.]