- rival
- rival vb 1 Rival, compete, vie, emulate can all mean to strive to equal or surpass another or his achievements.Rival (see also MATCH) usually suggests an attempt to outdo each other{
a work . . . which contending sects have rivaled each other in approving— Hebery
}Compete and vie, usually with the opponent explicitly stated after with and the objective after for, may sometimes omit direct reference to one or both of these{a modified apple syrup to compete in the . . . market of syrups for infant feeding— Crops in Peace and War
}Compete stresses a struggle for an objective (as position, favor, profit, or a prize); unlike rival, it need not suggest a conscious attempt to outdo another but may imply a quite impersonal striving{athletes competing in track sports
}{colleges compete with each other, promotionally, for public favor— Hoff
}{the buyer does not compete with the seller. He bargains with him; he competes with other buyers—C. E. Griffin
}Vie carries less suggestion of arduous struggle to hold one's own or to excel than compete, but it may suggest more conscious awareness of the opponent{the calypso singers who . . . vie with one another in duels of lyrical improvisation— The Lamp
}It sometimes suggests the excitement of contest that is a game rather than a combat{the boys vied with each other in showing off
}{they vied with each other in enlivening their cups by lamenting the depravity of this degenerate age— Peacock
}Emulate implies a conscious effort to equal or surpass someone or something by imitation or by using him or it as a model{a simplicity emulated without success by numerous modern poets— T. S. Eliot
}{these young . . . heroes, reared on the immense empty western plains, seek to emulate an eastern sophistication— Geismar
}{emulated the proverbial and sagacious rat; he got off in time— S. H. Adams
}2 *match, equal, approach, touch
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
