Definition of "fight"

fight¹

/faɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present fights, present participle fighting, simple past fought, past participle fought or (archaic) foughten
1. Senses relating to physical conflict:
  1. (transitive) To engage in combat with; to oppose physically, to contest with.
  2. (transitive) To conduct or engage in (battle, warfare etc.).
    Quotations
    was left to fight his way through the world.
    1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson ”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871
    I have fought a good fight.
    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Timothy 4:7
  3. (intransitive) To contend in physical conflict, either singly or in war, battle etc.
  4. (reciprocal) To contend in physical conflict with each other, either singly or in war, battle etc.
  5. (causative, archaic) To cause to fight; to manage or manoeuvre in a fight.
2. (intransitive) To strive for something; to campaign or contend for success.
  Quotations
  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 Timothy 6:12
  Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern. Then, for a jiffy, I hung on and fought for breath.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
  [Edmund] Burke continued to fight for liberty later on in life. He backed Americans in their campaign for freedom from British taxation. He supported Catholic freedoms and freer trade with Ireland, in spite of his constituents’ ire. He wanted more liberal laws on the punishment of debtors.
  2014 July 5, “Freedom fighter”, in The Economist, volume 412, number 8894
3. (transitive) To try to overpower; to fiercely counteract.
  Quotations
  I fought a sneeze as Max took my hand and led me into the chapel.
  2014, Ann Aguirre, The Shape of My Heart, page 42
4. (intransitive) Of colours or other design elements: to clash; to fail to harmonize.
  Quotations
  The higher the saturation, the more the colors fight, and the more users will be looking at your design instead of your content.
  2013, Ian G. Clifton, Android User Interface Design

fight²

noun
countable and uncountable, plural fights
1. An occasion of fighting.
2. (archaic) A battle between opposing armies.
3. A physical confrontation or combat between two or more people or groups.
4. (sports) A boxing or martial arts match.
5. A conflict, possibly nonphysical, with opposing ideas or forces; strife.
  Quotations
  ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess‎
  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.
  2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
6. (uncountable) The will or ability to fight.
7. (obsolete) A screen for the combatants in ships; an arming.
  Quotations
  Who ever ſaw a noble ſight, / That never view'd a brave Sea Fight: / Hang up your bloody Colours in the Aire, / Up with your Fights, and your Nettings prepare, / Your Merry Mates chear, with a luſty bold ſpright, / Now each Man his brindice, and then to the Fight, […]
  1673 May (first performance), John Dryden, Amboyna. A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1673, Act III, page 31

Definition of "fight"

fight1

verb

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fight2

noun

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fight¹

fight²