contest

contest vb 1 *compete, contend

Analogous words: struggle, strive, endeavor (see ATTEMPT): fight, battle (see CONTEND)

2 *resist, withstand, oppose, fight, combat, conflict, antagonize

contest n Contest, conflict, combat, fight, affray, fray denote a battle between opposing forces for supremacy, for power, or for possessions.

Contest is the broadest term; originally it referred solely to strife in argument but it is now applicable to any struggle, whether friendly or hostile, for a common object that involves a test of ability, strength, endurance, or strategic skill

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a swimming contest

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a contest of wits

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what mighty contests rise from trivial things— Pope

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boundary controversies or other contests between states— Frankfurter

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Conflict implies discord and warfare; it also suggests a closer engagement than contest

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arms on armor clashing brayed . . . dire was the noise of conflict— Milton

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Conflict may be extended to denote a struggle (often spiritual or mental) between opposing or contradictory principles or forces

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there is [in a Shakespearean tragedy] an outward conflict of persons and groups, there is also a conflict of forces in the hero's soul— Bradley

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Combat is less commonly used in an extended sense

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a combat against despair

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It implies an encounter, especially an armed encounter, between two (individuals, parties, or forces), frequently for the determination of a dispute

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let these have a day appointed them for a single combat in convenient place— Shak.

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these progressive leaders in both parties rose only after bitter struggle. They were the product of more than a lively contest. Sometimes the contests were combats— White

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Fight usually implies a hand-to-hand conflict and therefore emphasizes the individual participants. It ranges in dignity from a spiritual struggle

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fight the good fight of faith—/ Tim 6:12

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to actual blows with fists or weapons

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a prizefight

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Affray commonly refers to a tumultuous disturbance (as a street fight between mobs or factions) that inspires terror. Legally an affray is a fight that disturbs the public peace; in literary use the word is often applied to an unseemly or acrimonious dispute

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the suppressing of riots and affrays— Burke

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days of European crises, diplomatic affrays, hecatombic accidents— Montague

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some bloody affray between scholars— Quiller-Couch

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Fray is usually either a literary term, often with more dignified connotations than affray of which it is otherwise a very close synonym, or it is a poetic or hyperbolical substitute for battle, contest, or game

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"Where are the vile beginners of this fray?" "O noble prince, I can discover all the unlucky manage of this fatal brawl"— Shak.

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Analogous words: *encounter, skirmish, brush: competition, emulation, rivalry (see corresponding verbs at RIVAL): *battle, engagement, action