fight

fight - English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: fīt, IPA: /faɪt/
  • (US, Canada) IPA: [fʌɪt]

Verb

fight (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.
      • My grandfather fought the Nazis in World War II.
    2. (transitive) To conduct or engage in (battle, warfare etc.).
      • Our soldiers fought the battle just over that hill.
    3. (intransitive) To contend in physical conflict, either singly or in war, battle etc.
      • A wounded animal will fight tooth and nail; relentless, savage and murderous.
    4. (reciprocal) To contend in physical conflict with each other, either singly or in war, battle etc.
      • The two boxers have been fighting for more than half an hour.
    5. (causative, archaic) To cause to fight; to manage or manoeuvre in a fight.
      • to fight cocks; to fight one's ship
  2. (intransitive) To strive for something; to campaign or contend for success.
    • He fought for the Democrats in the last election.
  3. (transitive) To try to overpower; to fiercely counteract.
    • The government pledged to fight corruption.
  4. (intransitive) Of colours or other design elements: to clash; to fail to harmonize.

Usage notes

  • The reciprocal sense of "fight" is a common ellision of the phrase "fight each other", since context provides the meaning. "Each other" is commonly used with other verbs for an explicit reciprocal sense.
  • The reciprocal sense of "fight", which refers to two entities fighting each other, contrasts with the reflexive sense of the word "infight", which refers to entities of a group fighting each other.

Conjugation

infinitive (to) fight
present tense past tense
1st-person singular fight fought
2nd-person singular fight, fightest fought, foughtest
3rd-person singular fights, fighteth fought
plural fight
subjunctive fight fought
imperative fight
participles fighting fought, foughten

Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

  • See also fight

Derived terms

Terms derived from fight (verb)

Descendants

Translations


Noun

fight (countable and uncountable, plural fights)

  1. An occasion of fighting.
    • One of them got stuck in a chokehold and got stabbed to death during the fight.
  2. (archaic) A battle between opposing armies.
  3. A physical confrontation or combat between two or more people or groups.
    • Watch your language! Are you looking for a fight?
  4. (sports) A boxing or martial arts match.
    • I'm going to Nick’s to watch the big fight tomorrow night.
  5. A conflict, possibly nonphysical, with opposing ideas or forces; strife.
    • I'll put up a fight to save this company.
  6. (uncountable) 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.
  7. (obsolete) A screen for the combatants in ships; an arming.

Synonyms

  • See also fight

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Meaning and Definition of fight
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