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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.

ispute, 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.

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

A check; a stop; a rebuke, or censure to check a reprover.

A cattle herder; a drover; specifically, one of an adventurous class of herders and drovers on the plains of the Western and Southwestern United States.

write these curses in a book. Num. v. 23. Curses, like chickens, come home to roost. Old Proverb.

d or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence. -- Damascus iron, or Damascus twist, metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc., of high quality, in which the surface…

power; liable to a penalty to be inflicted by him. [Obs.] This sense is retained in the proverb, "Out of debt out of danger." Those rich man in whose debt and danger they be not. Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To do danger, to cause danger. [Obs.] Shak.

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.

ssion 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.

Controversy; deliberation; debate. [R.] A serious question and debatement with myself. Milton.

One who debates; one given to argument; a disputant; a controvertist. Debate where leisure serves with dull debaters. Shak.

To bring to a termination, as a question, controversy, struggle, by giving the victory to one side or party; to render judgment concerning; to determine; to settle. So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. 1 Kings xx. 40. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then. Shak.…

The act of deciding; act of settling or terminating, as a controversy, by giving judgment on the matter at issue; determination, as of a question or doubt; settlement; conclusion. The decision of some dispute. Atterbury.

Having the power or quality of deciding a question or controversy; putting an end to contest or controversy; final; conclusive. "A decisive, irrevocable doom." Bates. "Decisive campaign." Macaulay. "Decisive proof." Hallam.

A judge in the Isle of Man who decides controversies without process. Cowell.

To fix the bounds of; to bring to a termination; to end. "To define controversies." Barrow.

In a demonstrable manner; incontrovertibly; clearly. Cases that demonstrably concerned the public cause. Clarendon.