Strife

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Strife \Strife\, n. [OF. estrif. See {Strive}.]
     1. The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [Archaic] --Shak.
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     2. Exertion or contention for superiority; contest of
        emulation, either by intellectual or physical efforts.


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              Doting about questions and strifes of words. --1
                                                    Tim. vi. 4.
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              Thus gods contended -- noble strife 
              Who most should ease the wants of life. --Congreve.
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     3. Altercation; violent contention; fight; battle.
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              Twenty of them fought in this black strife. --Shak.
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              These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above
              Betwixt the god of war and queen of love. --Dryden.
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     4. That which is contended against; occasion of contest.
        [Obs.] "Lamenting her unlucky strife." --Spenser.
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     Syn: Contest; struggle; quarrel. See {Contention}.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  strife
       n 1: lack of agreement or harmony [syn: {discord}]
       2: bitter conflict; heated often violent dissension

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  73 Moby Thesaurus words for "strife":
     Kilkenny cats, altercation, animosity, antagonism, arguing,
     argument, bad blood, bicker, bickering, blood feud, brawl, broil,
     cat-and-dog life, combat, competition, conflict, contention,
     contentiousness, contest, contestation, controversy,
     cut and thrust, debate, difference, disagreement, discord,
     disharmony, disputation, dispute, dissension, donnybrook,
     donnybrook fair, embroilment, enmity, feud, fight, fighting,
     fliting, fracas, friction, fuss, hard feelings, hatred, hostility,
     ill will, imbroglio, litigation, logomachy, open quarrel,
     paper war, polemic, quarrel, quarreling, quarrelsomeness, rivalry,
     scrapping, sharp words, slanging match, snarl, spat, squabble,
     squabbling, struggle, tiff, tussle, unfriendliness, vendetta, war,
     war of words, warfare, words, wrangle, wrangling