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Strife in words; controversy; altercation quarrel; dispute; as, a bone of contention. Contentions and strivings about the law. Titus iii. 9.

Contention for a prize; a contest. [Obs.] Blount.

Warm contention in words; dispute carried on with heat or anger; controversy; wrangle; wordy contest. "Stormy altercations." Macaulay.

Strife; contention. [Obs.] Shak.

Exciting contention; contentious. [Obs.] "It did bateful question frame. " Sidney.

Inclined to war or contention; warlike; pugnacious. Arnold was, in fact, in a bellicose vein. W. Irving.

A wrangle; also, a noise,, as in angry contention.

Contention. [Obs.] Spenser.

"Blown up with high conceits engendering pride." Milton. (c) To excite; as, to blow up a contention.(d) To burst, to raise into the air, or to scatter, by an explosion; as, to blow up a fort. (e) To scold violently; as, to blow up a person for some offense. [Colloq.] I have blown him up well -- nobody can say I wink a…

Fig.: The framework of anything. A bone of contention, a subject of contention or dispute. -- A bone to pick, something to investigate, or to busy one's self about; a dispute to be settled (with some one). -- Bone ash, the residue from calcined bones; -- used for making cupels, and for cleaning jewelry. -- Bone blac…

A noisy quarrel; loud, angry contention; a wrangle; a tumult; as, a drunken brawl. His sports were hindered by the brawls. Shak .

A cabal, intrigue, faction, contention, strife, or quarrel. [Obs.] Chesterfield.

A tumult; a noisy quarrel; a disturbance; a brawl; contention; discord, either between individuals or in the state. I will own that there is a haughtiness and fierceness in human nature which will which will cause innumerable broils, place men in what situation you please. Burke.

The heat, or utmost violence, of an onset; the strength or greatest fury of any contention; as, the brunt of a battle.

Strife; contention; controversy. [Obs.] P. Plowman.

A struggling; a contention. [Obs.] Colluctation with old hags and hobgoblins. Dr. H. More.

Strife; contention. [Obs.] Bailey.

Quarrel; contention; contest. [Obs.] Contek with bloody knife. Chaucer.

Fond of contention; given to angry debate; provoking dispute or contention; quarrelsome. Despotic and contentious temper. Macaulay.

To make a subject of dispute, 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.…