fight
verbEtymology
From Middle English fighten (“to fight”), from Old English feohtan (“to fight, combat, strive”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan (“to fight”), from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to comb, tease, shear, struggle with”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear”). Cognate with Scots fecht (“to fight”), West Frisian fjochtsje, fjuchte (“to fight”), Dutch vechten (“to fight”), Low German fechten (“to fight”), German fechten (“to fight, fence”), Danish fægte (“to fence, to fight (using blade weapons)”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fekte (“to fence”), Swedish fäkta (“to fence, to fight (using blade weapons), to wave vigorously (and carelessly) with one's arms”), Latin pectō (“comb, thrash”, verb), Albanian pjek (“to hit, strive, fight”), Ancient Greek πέκω (pékō, “comb or card wool”, verb). Related also to Old English feht (“wool, shaggy pelt, fleece”).
Definitions
Senses relating to physical conflict
Senses relating to physical conflict:
- My grandfather fought the Nazis in World War II.
To strive for something
To strive for something; to campaign or contend for success.
- He fought for the Democrats in the last election.
To try to overpower
To try to overpower; to fiercely counteract.
- The government pledged to fight corruption.
- I fought a sneeze as Max took my hand and led me into the chapel.
›+ 8 more definitionsshow fewer
Of colours or other design elements
Of colours or other design elements: to clash; to fail to harmonize.
- The higher the saturation, the more the colors fight, and the more users will be looking at your design instead of your content.
An occasion of fighting.
- One of them got stuck in a chokehold and got stabbed to death during the fight.
A battle between opposing armies.
A physical confrontation or combat between two or more people or groups.
- Watch your language! Are you looking for a fight?
A boxing or martial arts match.
- I’m going to Nick’s to watch the big fight tomorrow night.
A conflict, possibly nonphysical, with opposing ideas or forces
A conflict, possibly nonphysical, with opposing ideas or forces; strife.
- I’ll put up a fight to save this company.
- As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs.
The will or ability to fight.
- That little guy has a bit of fight in him after all. As soon as he saw the size of his opponent, all the fight went out of him.
A screen for the combatants in ships
A screen for the combatants in ships; an arming.
The neighborhood
- synonymaffray
- synonymdust-up
- synonymfight
- synonymfracas
- synonymkerfuffle
- synonymrixation
- synonymruckus
- synonymset to
- synonymset-to
- synonymstoush
- neighborclash
- neighborconflict
- neighborconfrontation
- neighborcontention
- neighborriot
- neighboraltercation
- neighbordispute
- neighborcommotion
- neighbordisorder
- neighborcombative
- neighborattack
- neighborbattle
Derived
armored combat fight, armoured combat fight, banyan fight, bare-knuckle fight, barfight, befight, bitch fight, bitchfight, boodle fight, bossfight, bottle fight, bullfight, bun-fight, bun fight, cage fight, catfight, cat fight, chicken fight, cockfight, copyfight, couldn't organise a bun fight in a bakery, dog-fight, dogfight, dog fight, dog in the fight, fext, fightback, fighter, fighting, fight IQ, fight-or-flight, fight or flight, fight scene, fight shy, fightsome, fight song, fight stick, fight the good fight, fight to the death, fight to the finish · +45 more
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at fight. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at fight. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
8 hops · closes at fight
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA