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ervice as an officer or a private; one who serves in an army; one of an organized body of combatants. I am a soldier and unapt to weep. Shak.

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.

Hence, a petty combat, esp. a verbal one; a little quarrel, dispute, or dissension. [U. S.]

Severe; violent; fierce. [Obs.] "In starke stours." [i. e., in fierce combats]. Chaucer.

To separate combatants by intervening. [Obs.] When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians killed, and the rest in a fair way of being routed, he stickles betwixt the remainder of God's host and the race of fiends. Dryden.

A battle or tumult; encounter; combat; disturbance; passion. [Obs.] Fairfax. "That woeful stowre." Spenser. She that helmed was in starke stours [fierce conflicts]. Chaucer.

ed over swords laid on the ground, but without touching them. -- Sword fight, fencing; a combat or trial of skill with swords; swordplay. -- Sword grass. (Bot.) See Gladen. -- Sword knot, a ribbon tied to the hilt of a sword. -- Sword law, government by the sword, or by force; violence. Milton. -- Sword lily. (Bot…

thickens when he shines by." Shak. The press of people thickens to the court. Dryden. The combat thickens, like the storm that flies. Dryden.

t with a lance; to practice the military game or exercise of thrusting with a lance, as a combatant on horseback; to joust; also, figuratively, to engage in any combat or movement resembling that of horsemen tilting with lances. He tilts With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast. Shak. Swords out, and tilting one a…

A mock fight, or warlike game, formerly in great favor, in which a number of combatants were engaged, as an exhibition of their address and bravery; hence, figuratively, a real battle. "In battle and in tourneyment." Chaucer. With cruel tournament the squadrons join. Milton.

ng of vainglory. Bacon. The man's undone forever; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break't himself in vainglory. Shak.

. To wage battle (O. Eng. Law), to give gage, or security, for joining in the duellum, or combat. See Wager of battel, under Wager, n. Burrill. -- To wage one's law (Law), to give security to make one's law. See Wager of law, under Wager, n.

ager of battle (O. Eng. Law), the giving of gage, or pledge, for trying a cause by single combat, formerly allowed in military, criminal, and civil causes. In writs of right, where the trial was by champions, the tenant produced his champion, who, by throwing down his glove as a gage, thus waged, or stipulated, battle…

An instrument of offensive of defensive combat; something to fight with; anything used, or designed to be used, in destroying, defeating, or injuring an enemy, as a gun, a sword, etc. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. 2 Cor. x. 4. They, astonished, all resistance lost, All courage; down their idle weapons drop…

a chaplet, esp. one given to a victor. Conquest doth grant He dear wreath to the Grecian combatant. Chapman. Far back in the ages, The plow with wreaths was crowned. Bryant.

Act of one who wrestles; specif., the sport consisting of the hand-to-hand combat between two unarmed contestants who seek to throw each other. The various styles of wrestling differ in their definition of a fall and in the governing rules. In Greco-Roman wrestling, tripping and taking hold of the legs are forbidden, a…