4 October 2014
war (1)
[wawr]
noun
1. a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.
2. a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations:
The two nations were at war with each other.
3. a contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns:
the War of 1812.
4. armed fighting, as a science, profession, activity, or art; methods or principles of waging armed conflict:
War is the soldier’s business.
5. active hostility or contention; conflict; contest:
a war of words.
6. aggressive business conflict, as through severe price cutting in the same industry or any other means of undermining competitors:
a fare war among airlines; a trade war between nations.
7. a struggle to achieve a goal: the war on cancer; a war against poverty;
a war for hearts and minds.
verb (used without object), warred, warring.
10. to make or carry on war; fight:
to war with a neighboring nation.
11. to carry on active hostility or contention:
Throughout her life she warred with sin and corruption.
12. to be in conflict or in a state of strong opposition:
The temptation warred with his conscience.
adjective
13. of, belonging to, used in, or due to war:
war preparations; war hysteria.
Origin
late Old English Old North French, Germanic
1150 before 1150; (noun) Middle English, late Old English werre < Old North French < Germanic; cognate with Old High German werra strife; (v.) Middle English, late Old English werrien (transitive) to make war upon, derivative of the noun; compare Old French guerrer, Old North French werreier; akin to war2
war (2)
[wahr]
adjective, adverb, Scot. and North England
1. worse.
Origin
1150-1200; Middle English werre < Old Norse verri worse
war.
1. warrant.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the web for war
– Privateers were privately owned, armed ships hired by governments during time of war.
– The left often complains about the culture war as if it’s a war they don’t want to fight.
– New ways of healing are as much a product of war as are new ways of killing.
British Dictionary definitions for war
war
/wɔː/
noun
1. open armed conflict between two or more parties, nations, or states related adjectives belligerent martial
2. a particular armed conflict: the 1973 war in the Middle East
3. the techniques of armed conflict as a study, science, or profession
4. any conflict or contest: a war of wits, the war against crime
5. (modifier) of, relating to, resulting from, or characteristic of war: a war hero, war damage, a war story
6. to have had a good war, to have made the most of the opportunities presented to one during wartime
7. (informal) in the wars, (esp of a child) hurt or knocked about, esp as a result of quarrelling and fighting
verb wars, warring, warred
8. (intransitive) to conduct a war
Word
C12: from Old Northern French werre (variant of Old French guerre), of Germanic origin; related to Old High German werra
Expand
War.
abbreviation
1. Warwickshire
Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for war
n. late Old English (c.1050), wyrre, werre, from Old North French werre “war” (Modern French guerre), from Frankish *werra, from Proto-Germanic *werso (cf. Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, German verwirren “to confuse, perplex”). Cognates suggest the original sense was “to bring into confusion.”
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian guerra are from the same source; Romanic peoples turned to Germanic for a word to avoid Latin bellum because its form tended to merge with bello- “beautiful.” There was no common Germanic word for “war” at the dawn of historical times. Old English had many poetic words for “war” ( wig, guð, heaðo, hild, all common in personal names), but the usual one to translate Latin bellum was gewin “struggle, strife” (related to win ).
First record of war time is late 14c. Warpath (1775) is originally in reference to North American Indians, as are war-whoop (1761), war-paint (1826), and war-dance (1757). War crime first attested 1906. War chest is attested from 1901; now usually figurative. War games translates German Kriegspiel (see kriegspiel ).
v. “to make war on,” mid-12c.; see war (n.). Related: Warred ; warring.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with war
war
war horse
war of nerves
also see:
all’s fair in love and war
at war
been to the wars
declare war
tug of war
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Anagram
raw
Today’s aphorism
You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
On this day
4 October 1669 – death of Rembrandt, famous Dutch painter.
4 October 1927 – commencement of Mt Rushmore sculptures near Keystone, South Dakota. It is a sculpture carved into the granite face of the mountain. The sculpture features the faces of four U.S. presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Construction finished on 31 October 1941 because funding ran out. It was the brainchild of Doane Robinson. The carvings are 18m (60′) high and were carved by Gutzon Borglum and a team of 400 workers.
4 October 1931 – The comic strip, Dick Tracy, makes its debut in the Detroit Mirror and is distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News syndicate. The cartoon was created by Chester Gould who continued to draw it until 1977.
4 October 1970 – death of Janis Joplin. American singer-songwriter. She was 27.
