1.  battle(n = noun.act) conflict, engagement, fight - a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war; "Grant won a decisive victory in the battle of Chickamauga"; "he lost his romantic ideas about war when he got into a real engagement"
is a kind of action, military action
is a part of war, warfare
has particulars: armageddon, pitched battle, naval battle, armed combat, combat, dogfight, assault, battle of britain, drogheda
Derived form verb battle₁

2.  battle(n = noun.act) struggle - an energetic attempt to achieve something; "getting through the crowd was a real struggle"; "he fought a battle for recognition"
is a kind of attempt, effort, endeavor, endeavour, try
has particulars: duel, scramble, scuffle, joust, tilt

3.  battle(n = noun.act) conflict, struggle - an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals); "the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph"; "police tried to control the battle between the pro- and anti-abortion mobs"
is a kind of group action
has particulars: class struggle, class war, class warfare, insurrection, rebellion, revolt, rising, uprising, counterinsurgency, pacification, strife, tug-of-war, turf war, combat, fight, fighting, scrap, feud, war, warfare
Derived form verb battle₁

   battle(v = verb.competition) combat - battle or contend against in or as if in a battle; "The Kurds are combating Iraqi troops in Northern Iraq"; "We must combat the prejudices against other races"; "they battled over the budget"
is one way to contend, fight, struggle
Derived forms noun battle₁, noun battle₃, noun battler₁
Sample sentences: Sam and Sue battle; Sam cannot battle Sue

   Fertile. See Battel, a. [1913 Webster]

1.  A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; an engagement; a combat. [1913 Webster]

2.  A struggle; a contest; as, the battle of life. [1913 Webster]
"The whole intellectual battle that had at its center the best poem of the best poet of that day." [1913 Webster]

3.  A division of an army; a battalion. [1913 Webster]
"The king divided his army into three battles." [1913 Webster]
"The cavalry, by way of distinction, was called the battle, and on it alone depended the fate of every action." [1913 Webster]

4.  The main body, as distinct from the van and rear; battalia. Hayward. [1913 Webster]
" Battle is used adjectively or as the first part of a self-explaining compound; as, battle brand, a “brand” or sword used in battle; battle cry; battlefield; battle ground; battle array; battle song." [1913 Webster]

   To join in battle; to contend in fight; as, to battle over theories. [1913 Webster]
"To meet in arms, and battle in the plain." [1913 Webster]

   To assail in battle; to fight. [1913 Webster]

battle, n. & v.
--n.
1 a prolonged fight between large organized armed forces.
2 a contest; a prolonged or difficult struggle (life is a constant battle; a battle of wits).
--v.
1 intr. struggle; fight persistently (battled against the elements; battled for women's rights).
2 tr. fight (one's way etc.).
3 tr. US engage in battle with.

Idiom:
battle-cruiser hist. a heavy-gunned ship faster and more lightly armoured than a battleship. battle-cry a cry or slogan of participants in a battle or contest. battle fatigue = combat fatigue. battle royal
1 a battle in which several combatants or all available forces engage; a free fight.
2 a heated argument. half the battle the key to the success of an undertaking.

Derivative:
battler n.

Etymology:
ME f. OF bataille ult. f. LL battualia gladiatorial exercises f. L battuere beat

N  contention, strife, contest, contestation, struggle, belligerency, opposition, controversy, polemics, debate, war of words, logomachy, litigation, paper war, high words, sparring, competition, rivalry, corrivalry, corrivalship, agonism, concours, match, race, horse racing, heat, steeple chase, handicap, regatta, field day, sham fight, Derby day, turf, sporting, bullfight, tauromachy, gymkhana, boat race, torpids, wrestling, greco-roman wrestling, pugilism, boxing, fisticuffs, the manly art of self-defense, spar, mill, set-to, round, bout, event, prize fighting, quarterstaff, single stick, gladiatorship, gymnastics, jiujitsu, jujutsu, kooshti, sumo, athletics, athletic sports, games of skill, shindy, fracas, clash of arms, tussle, scuffle, broil, fray, affray, affrayment, velitation, colluctation, luctation, brabble, brigue, scramble, melee, scrimmage, stramash, bushfighting, free fight, stand up fight, hand to hand, running fight, conflict, skirmish, rencounter, encounter, rencontre, collision, affair, brush, fight, battle, battle royal, combat, action, engagement, joust, tournament, tilt, tilting, tournay, list, pitched battle, death struggle, struggle for life or death, life or death struggle, Armageddon, hard knocks, sharp contest, tug of war, naval engagement, naumachia, sea fight, duel, duello, single combat, monomachy, satisfaction, passage d'armes, passage of arms, affair of honor, triangular duel, hostile meeting, digladiation, deeds of arms, feats of arms, appeal to arms, pugnacity, combativeness, bone of contention, contending, together by the ears, at loggerheads, at war, at issue, competitive, rival, belligerent, contentious, combative, bellicose, unpeaceful, warlike, quarrelsome, pugnacious, pugilistic, gladiatorial, palestric, palestrical, a verbis ad verbera, a word and a blow, a very pretty quarrel as it stands, commune periculum concordiam parit, lis litem generat.

N  warfare, fighting, hostilities, war, arms, the sword, Mars, Bellona, grim visaged war, horrida bella, bloodshed, appeal to arms, appeal to the sword, ordeal of battle, wager of battle, ultima ratio regum, arbitrament of the sword, battle array, campaign, crusade, expedition, operations, mobilization, state of siege, battlefield, theater of operations, warpath, art of war, tactics, strategy, castrametation, generalship, soldiership, logistics, military evolutions, ballistics, gunnery, chivalry, gunpowder, shot, battle, tug of war, service, campaigning, active service, tented field, kriegspiel, Kriegsspiel, fire cross, trumpet, clarion, bugle, pibroch, slogan, war-cry, war-whoop, battle cry, beat of drum, rappel, tom-tom, calumet of war, word of command, password, watchword, passage d-armes, war to the death, war to the knife, guerre a mort, guerre a outrance, open war, internecine war, civil war, contending, contentious, armed, armed to the teeth, armed cap-a-pie, sword in hand, in arms, under arms, up in arms, at war with, bristling with arms, in battle array, in open arms, in the field, embattled, battled, unpacific, unpeaceful, belligerent, combative, armigerous, bellicose, martial, warlike, military, militant, soldier-like, soldierly, chivalrous, strategical, internecine, flagrante bello, in the thick of the fray, in the cannon's mouth, at the sword's point, at the point of the bayonet, Int, vae victis!, to arms!, to your tents O Israel!, the battle rages, a la guerre comme a la guerre, bis peccare in bello non licet, jus gladii, my voice is still for war, 'tis well that war is so terrible, otherwise we might grow fond of it, my sentence is for open war, pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war, the cannons have their bowels full of wrath, the cannons aspit forth their iron indignation, the fire-eyed maid of smoky war, silent leges inter arma, si vis pacem para bellum.

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