Search the Dictionary

Inclined to dispute; apt to civil or controvert; characterized by dispute; as, a disputatious person or temper. The Christian doctrine of a future life was no recommendation of the new religion to the wits and philosophers of that disputations period. Buckminster. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ly, adv. -- Dis`pu*ta"tious*ness, n…

To oppose by argument or assertion; to attempt to overthrow; to controvert; to express dissent or opposition to; to call in question; to deny the truth or validity of; as, to dispute assertions or arguments. To seize goods under the disputed authority of writs of assistance. Bancroft.

Admitting no dispute; incontrovertible. Bailey.

One who disputes, or who is given to disputes; a controvertist. Where is the disputer of this world 1 Cor. i. 20.

loy or involve one's self; to devote attention and effort; to enlist; as, to engage in controversy.

Controversial. [Archaic] A specimen of admirable special pleading in the court of eristic logic. Coleridge.

A blow in the face, as in boxing; hence, any severe or stunning check or defeat, as in controversy. [Collog.] I should have been a stercoraceous mendicant if I had hollowed when I got a facer. C. Kingsley.

r good effect; vain; idle; useless; unprofitable; as, a fruitless attempt; a fruitless controversy. They in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours. Milton.

To contradict; to deny; to controvert; to dispute; to forbid. I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Luke xxi. 15. The just gods gainsay That any drop thou borrow'dst from thy mother, My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword Be drained. Shak.…

the punishment of the gantlet; hence, to go through the ordeal of severe criticism or controversy, or ill-treatment at many hands. Winthrop ran the gantlet of daily slights. Palfrey.

One who engages in any fierce combat or controversy.

hrust, a well directed or effective thrust; one that wounds in a vital part; hence, in controversy, a personal attack.

Not contestable; not to be disputed; that cannot be called in question or controverted; incontrovertible; indisputable; as, incontestable evidence, truth, or facts. Locke.

Not disputable; incontrovertible; too evident to admit of dispute.

d; as, the intricacy of a knot; the intricacy of accounts; the intricacy of a cause in controversy; the intricacy of a plot. Freed from intricacies, taught to live The easiest way. Milton.

A point in debate or controversy on which the parties take affirmative and negative positions; a presentation of alternatives between which to choose or decide.

To hear and determine by authority, as a case before a court, or a controversy between two parties. "Chaos [shall] judge the strife." Milton.

A person duly commissioned to hold courts, or to try and decide controversies and administer justice.

Subject to contention; disputable; controvertible; debatable; doubtful; precarious. Shak. No fences, parted fields, nor marks, nor bounds, Distinguished acres of litigious grounds. Dryden.

First a case is appointed to be mooted by certain young men, containing some doubtful controversy. Sir T. Elyot.