combat

Etymology

Borrowed from French, from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).

Pronunciation

• Noun:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmˌbæt/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmˌbæt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Verb:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmˌbæt/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /kəmˈbæt/, /ˈkɑmˌbæt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

Noun

combat (countable and uncountable, plural combats)

1. A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used); a struggle for victory.
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 24962326:

     "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."

   • 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.

Verb

combat (third-person singular simple present combats, present participle combatting or combating, simple past and past participle combatted or combated)

1. (transitive) To fight with; to struggle for victory against.
   • Milton

     To combat with a blind man I disdain.

Anagrams

• tombac

Noun

combat m (plural combats)

1. combat

Verb

combat

1. third-person singular present indicative form of combatre
2. second-person singular imperative form of combatre

Etymology

From combattre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ba/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: combats

Noun

combat m (plural combats)

1. combat (hostile interaction)
2. (figuratively) combat (contest; competition)
3. (in the plural) battle; military combat

Verb

combat

1. third-person singular present indicative of combattre

Further reading

• “combat” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Noun

combat m (plural combats)

1. (Jersey) combat