war Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the waging of armed conflict against an enemy
    warfare.
    • thousands of people were killed in the war
  2. noun a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration during which the international rules of war apply
    state of war.
    • war was declared in November but actual fighting did not begin until the following spring
  3. noun an active struggle between competing entities
    warfare.
    • a price war
    • a war of wits
    • diplomatic warfare
  4. noun a concerted campaign to end something that is injurious
    • the war on poverty
    • the war against crime
  5. verb make or wage war

WordNet

War adjective
Definitions
  1. Ware; aware. Obs. Chaucer.
War noun
Etymology
OE. & AS. werre; akin to OHG. werra scandal, quarrel, sedition, werran to confound, mix, D. warren, G. wirren, verwirren, to embroil, confound, disturb, and perhaps to E. worse; cf. OF. werre war, F. querre, of Teutonic origin. Cf. Guerrilla, Warrior.
Definitions
  1. A contest between nations or states, carried on by force, whether for defence, for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce, for the acquisition of territory, for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other, or for any other purpose; armed conflict of sovereign powers; declared and open hostilities.
    Men will ever distinguish war from mere bloodshed. F. W. Robertson.
    ✍ As war is the contest of nations or states, it always implies that such contest is authorized by the monarch or the sovereign power of the nation. A war begun by attacking another nation, is called an offensive war, and such attack is aggressive. War undertaken to repel invasion, or the attacks of an enemy, is called defensive.
  2. (Law) A condition of belligerency to be maintained by physical force. In this sense, levying war against the sovereign authority is treason.
  3. Instruments of war. Poetic
    His complement of stores, and total war. Prior.
  4. Forces; army. Poetic
    On their embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war. Milton.
  5. The profession of arms; the art of war.
    Thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth. 1 Sam. xvii. 33.
  6. a state of opposition or contest; an act of opposition; an inimical contest, act, or action; enmity; hostility. "Raised impious war in heaven." Milton.
    The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. Ps. lv. 21.
War intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Warred ; present participle & verbal noun Warring
Definitions
  1. To make war; to invade or attack a state or nation with force of arms; to carry on hostilities; to be in a state by violence.
    Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it. Isa. vii. 1.
    Why should I war without the walls of Troy? Shak.
    Our countrymen were warring on that day! Byron.
  2. To contend; to strive violently; to fight. "Lusts which war against the soul." 1 Pet. ii. 11.
War transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To make war upon; to fight. R.
    To war the Scot, and borders to defend. Daniel.
  2. To carry on, as a contest; to wage. R.
    That thou . . . mightest war a good warfare. Tim. i. 18.

Webster 1913