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Clash or collision of heads in contest. Dryden.

ght, in wrestling, boxing, etc., a term applied to the heaviest of the classes into which contestants are divided. Cf. Feather weight (c), under Feather.

ters the enjoyment of this life than shame South. Imbittered against each other by former contests. Bancroft.

One of the contestants in interference before the Patent Office. [U.S.]

efragable; not to be gainsaid or denied; not to be refuted or overthrown; unanswerable; incontestable; undeniable; as, an irrefragable argument; irrefragable evidence. -- Ir*ref"ra*ga*ble*ness, n. -- Ir*ref"ra*ga*bly, adv.

The final outcome or result; upshot; conclusion; event; hence, contest; test; trial. Come forth to view The issue of the exploit. Shak. While it is hot, I 'll put it to the issue. Shak.

all kinds of athletic sports, wrestling, boxing, racing on foot and in chariots, and also contests in music and poetry. The prize was a garland of pine leaves.

To accept, or engage in, as a contest; as, to join encounter, battle, issue. Milton. To join battle, To join issue. See under Battle, Issue.

to have fought till nothing was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both towns.

o yield; to submit; -- used with down, to, or under. To knuckle to. (a) To submit to in a contest; to yield to. [Colloq.] See To knock under, under Knock, v. i. (b) To apply one's self vigorously or earnestly to; as, to knuckle to work. [Colloq.]

or; -- used in the counter operations of miners. To break a lance, to engage in a tilt or contest.

to toss the weighty lance. Pope. To enter the lists, to accept a challenge, or engage in contest.

To make the subject of a lawsuit; to contest in law; to prosecute or defend by pleadings, exhibition of evidence, and judicial debate in a court; as, to litigate a cause.

The act or process of litigating; a suit at law; a judicial contest.

Inclined to judicial contest; given to the practice of contending in law; guarrelsome; contentious; fond of litigation. " A pettifogging attorney or a litigious client." Macaulay. Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, who guarrels move. Donne.

suffer loss, disadvantage, or defeat; to be worse off, esp. as the result of any kind of contest. We 'll . . . hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out. Shak.

Effort to overcome in contest; struggle; endeavor. [R.] Farindon.

Battle; contest. [Obs.] Fairfax.

Contest for superiority. [Obs.] Holland.

gether of two parties suited to one another, as for a union, a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like; as, specifically: