1. Earnest dispute; strife in argument; controversy; debate;
altercation.
Leave all noisy contests, all immodest clamors and brawling language.
I. Watts.
2. Earnest struggle for superiority, victory, defense, etc.; competition; emulation; strife in arms; conflict; combat; encounter. The late battle had, in effect, been a contest between one usurper and another. Hallam. It was fully expected that the contest there would be long and fierce. Macaulay.
Syn. — Conflict; combat; battle; encounter; shock; struggle; dispute; altercation; debate; controvesy; difference; disagreement; strife. — Contest, Conflict, Combat, Encounter. Contest is the broadest term, and had originally no reference to actual fighting. It was, on the contrary, a legal term signifying to call witnesses, and hence came to denote first a struggle in argument, and then a struggle for some common object between opposing parties, usually one of considerable duration, and implying successive stages or acts. Conflict denotes literally a close personal engagement, in which sense it is applied to actual fighting. It is, however, more commonly used in a figurative sense to denote strenuous or direct opposition; as, a mental conflict; conflicting interests or passions; a conflict of laws. An encounter is a direct meeting face to face. Usually it is a hostile meeting, and is then very nearly coincident with conflict; as, an encounter of opposing hosts. Sometimes it is used in a looser sense; as, "this keen encounter of our wits." Shak. Combat is commonly applied to actual fighting, but may be used figuratively in reference to a strife or words or a struggle of feeling.
CONTESTABLE
Con*test"a*ble, a. Etym: [Cf. F. contestable.]
Defn: Capable of being contested; debatable.
CONTESTANT
Con*test"ant, n. Etym: [Cf. F. contestant.]
Defn: One who contests; an opponent; a litigant; a disputant; one who claims that which has been awarded to another.
CONTESTATION Con`tes*ta"tion, n. Etym: [L. contestatio testimony: cf. F. contestation a contesting.]
1. The act of contesting; emulation; rivalry; strife; dispute. "Loverlike contestation." Milton. After years spent in domestic, unsociable contestations, she found means to withdraw. Clarendon.
2. Proof by witness; attestation; testimony. [Obs.] A solemn contestation ratified on the part of God. Barrow.