| Library / English Dictionary |
CONTEND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they contend ... he / she / it contends
Past simple: contended
Past participle: contended
-ing form: contending
Sense 1
Meaning:
Maintain or assert
Example:
He contended that Communism had no future
Synonyms:
contend; postulate
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "contend" is one way to...):
claim (assert or affirm strongly; state to be true or existing)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Derivation:
contention (a point asserted as part of an argument)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Have an argument about something
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "contend" is one way to...):
converse; discourse (carry on a conversation)
"Contend" entails doing...:
differ; disagree; dissent; take issue (be of different opinions)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contend"):
stickle (dispute or argue stubbornly (especially minor points))
spar (fight verbally)
bicker; brabble; niggle; pettifog; quibble; squabble (argue over petty things)
altercate; argufy; dispute; quarrel; scrap (have a disagreement over something)
oppose (be against; express opposition to)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
contention (a contentious speech act; a dispute where there is strong disagreement)
Sense 3
Meaning:
To make the subject of dispute, contention, or litigation
Example:
They contested the outcome of the race
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "contend" is one way to...):
oppose (be against; express opposition to)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contend"):
challenge; dispute; gainsay (take exception to)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Derivation:
contention (a contentious speech act; a dispute where there is strong disagreement)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contend"):
equal; match; rival; touch (be equal to in quality or ability)
emulate (compete with successfully; approach or reach equality with)
rival (be the rival of, be in competition with)
run off (decide (a contest or competition) by a runoff)
play (participate in games or sport)
go for; try for (make an attempt at achieving something)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
contender (the contestant you hope to defeat)
contention (the act of competing as for profit or a prize)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Be engaged in a fight; carry on a fight
Example:
Militant groups are contending for control of the country
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
"Contend" entails doing...:
compete; contend; vie (compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contend"):
engage; wage (carry on (wars, battles, or campaigns))
wrestle (engage in a wrestling match)
scuffle; tussle (fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters)
spar (fight with spurs)
box (engage in a boxing match)
fence (fight with fencing swords)
bandy (exchange blows)
skirmish (engage in a skirmish)
feud (carry out a feud)
tourney (engage in a tourney)
chicken-fight; chickenfight (fight while sitting on somebody's shoulders)
joust (joust against somebody in a tournament by fighting on horseback)
duel (fight a duel, as over one's honor or a woman)
assail; attack (launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with)
war (make or wage war)
battle; combat (battle or contend against in or as if in a battle)
fight back (defend oneself)
get back; settle (get one's revenge for a wrong or an injury)
defend; fight; fight back; fight down; oppose (fight against or resist strongly)
tug (struggle in opposition)
join battle (engage in a conflict)
fistfight (fight with the fists)
bear down (exert full strength)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s PP
Sense 6
Meaning:
Succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available
Example:
They made do on half a loaf of bread every day
Synonyms:
contend; cope; deal; get by; grapple; make do; make out; manage
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "contend" is one way to...):
act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contend"):
extemporize; improvise (manage in a makeshift way; do with whatever is at hand)
fend (try to manage without help)
cut; hack (be able to manage or manage successfully)
rub along; scrape along; scrape by; scratch along; squeak by; squeeze by (manage one's existence barely)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s PP
Context examples:
I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
A woman who could betray me for such a rival was not worth contending for; she deserved only scorn; less, however, than I, who had been her dupe.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Catherine would contend no longer against comfort.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I was tired, at any rate; but had I been as fresh as when I rose, I could see it was in vain for me to contend in speed with such an adversary.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
They have no difficulties to contend with at home, no opposition, no caprice, no delays.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
At those depths, life has to contend with an array of circumstances we've traditionally thought of as unamenable to living things.
(Researchers Create New Model of Ecosystem Hidden Beneath Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Reducing sodium intake, which leads to lower blood pressure, will inevitably result in important reductions in cardiovascular events, low salt advocates contend.
(Study Shows Average Consumption of Salt Good for Heart Health, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
He said, it was common, when two Yahoos discovered such a stone in a field, and were contending which of them should be the proprietor, a third would take the advantage, and carry it away from them both; which my master would needs contend to have some kind of resemblance with our suits at law; wherein I thought it for our credit not to undeceive him; since the decision he mentioned was much more equitable than many decrees among us; because the plaintiff and defendant there lost nothing beside the stone they contended for: whereas our courts of equity would never have dismissed the cause, while either of them had any thing left.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Oh, nothing, nothing, said he, and strolled back to where the voices of the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet, the high, strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to the sonorous bass of Challenger.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
