In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
COMBAT
combat, armed combat
(noun) an engagement fought between two military forces
fight, fighting, combat, scrap
(noun) the act of fighting; any contest or struggle; “a fight broke out at the hockey game”; “there was fighting in the streets”; “the unhappy couple got into a terrible scrap”
battle, combat
(verb) battle or contend against in or as if in a battle; “The Kurds are combating Iraqi troops in Northern Iraq”; “We must combat the prejudices against other races”; “they battled over the budget”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
combat (countable and uncountable, plural combats)
A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
a struggle for victory
Verb
combat (third-person singular simple present combats, present participle combating or combatting, simple past and past participle combated or combatted)
(transitive) To fight; to struggle against.
(intransitive) To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against).
Anagrams
• tombac
Source: Wiktionary
Com"bat ( or ; 277), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Combated; p. pr. & vb. n. Combating.] Etym: [F. combattre; pref. com- + battre to beat, fr. L. battuere to strike. See Batter.]
Definition: To struggle or contend, as with an opposing force; to fight. To combat with a blind man I disdain. Milton. After the fall of the republic, the Romans combated only for the choice of masters. Gibbon.
Com"bat, v. t.
Definition: To fight with; to oppose by force, argument, etc.; to contend against; to resist. When he the ambitious Norway combated. Shak. And combated in silence all these reasons. Milton. Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled. Goldsmith.
Syn.
– To fight against; resist; oppose; withstand; oppugn; antagonize; repel; resent.
Com"bat, n. Etym: [Cf. F. combat.]
1. A fight; a contest of violence; a struggle for supremacy. My courage try by combat, if thou dar'st. Shak. The noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was fought in Paulina. Shak.
2. (Mil.)
Definition: An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies. Single combat, one in which a single combatant meets a single opponent, as in the case of David and Goliath; also a duel.
Syn.
– A battle; engagement; conflict; contest; contention; struggle; fight, strife. See Battle, Contest.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
15 April 2025
DOOMED
(adjective) marked by or promising bad fortune; “their business venture was doomed from the start”; “an ill-fated business venture”; “an ill-starred romance”; “the unlucky prisoner was again put in irons”- W.H.Prescott
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