Search the Dictionary

One who disputes; one who argues A singularly eager, acute, and pertinacious disputant. Macaulay.

One who argues; a reasoner; a disputant.

One who contests; an opponent; a litigant; a disputant; one who claims that which has been awarded to another.

A disputant. [Obs.]

One who carries on a controversy; a disputant. He [Johnson] was both intellectually and morally of the stuff of which controversialists are made. Macaulay.

Inability to express one's self; stiffness. [Obs.] A reverend disputant of the same costiveness in public elocution with myself. Wakefield.

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

Ignorant or negligent of the rules of logic or correct reasoning; as, an illogical disputant; contrary of the rules of logic or sound reasoning; as, an illogical inference. -- Il*log"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Il*log"ic*al*ness, n.

rine, or system, in opposition to another; one skilled in polemics; a controversialist; a disputant. The sarcasms and invectives of the young polemic. Macaulay.

To perplex; to confuse; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to nonplus. A very shrewd disputant in those points is dexterous in puzzling others. Dr. H. More. He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders. Addison.

as, to refute arguments; to refute testimony; to refute opinions or theories; to refute a disputant. There were so many witnesses in these two miracles that it is impossible to refute such multitudes. Addison.

To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants. [Obs.] Which [question] violently they pursue, Nor stickled would they be. Drayton.

An angry disputant; one who disputes with heat or peevishness. "Noisy and contentious wranglers." I. Watts.