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war |
8 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: War \War\, a. Ware; aware. [Obs.] --Chaucer. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: War \War\, n. [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}.] 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 Note: 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. {Civil war}, a war between different sections or parties of the same country or nation. {Holy war}. See under {Holy}. {Man of war}. (Naut.) See in the Vocabulary. {Public war}, a war between independent sovereign states. {War cry}, a cry or signal used in war; as the Indian war cry. {War dance}, a dance among savages preliminary to going to war. Among the North American Indians, it is begun by some distinguished chief, and whoever joins in it thereby enlists as one of the party engaged in a warlike excursion. --Schoolcraft. {War field}, a field of war or battle. {War horse}, a horse used in war; the horse of a cavalry soldier; especially, a strong, powerful, spirited horse for military service; a charger. {War paint}, paint put on the face and other parts of the body by savages, as a token of going to war. ``Wash the war paint from your faces.'' --Longfellow. {War song}, a song of or pertaining to war; especially, among the American Indians, a song at the war dance, full of incitements to military ardor. {War whoop}, a war cry, especially that uttered by the American Indians. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: War \War\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Warred}; p. pr & vb n. {Warring}.] 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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: War \War\, v. t. 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. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: war n 1: the waging of armed conflict against an enemy; "thousands of people were killed in the war" [syn: {warfare}] 2: a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration during which the international rules of war apply; "war was declared in November but actual fighting did not begin until the following spring" [syn: {state of war}] [ant: {peace}] 3: an active struggle between competing entities; "a price war"; "a war of wits"; "diplomatic warfare" [syn: {warfare}] 4: a concerted campaign to end something that is injurious; "the war on poverty"; "the war against crime" v : make or wage war [ant: {make peace}] From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]: War, WV (city, FIPS 84484) Location: 37.30277 N, 81.68008 W Population (1990): 1081 (525 housing units) Area: 2.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]: War The Israelites had to take possession of the Promised Land by conquest. They had to engage in a long and bloody war before the Canaanitish tribes were finally subdued. Except in the case of Jericho and Ai the war did not become aggressive till after the death of Joshua. Till then the attack was always first made by the Canaanites. Now the measure of the iniquity of the Canaanites was full, and Israel was employed by God to sweep them away from off the face of the earth. In entering on this new stage of the war, the tribe of Judah, according to divine direction, took the lead. In the days of Saul and David the people of Israel engaged in many wars with the nations around and after the division of the kingdom into two they often warred with each other They had to defend themselves also against the inroads of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. The whole history of Israel from first to last presents but few periods of peace. The Christian life is represented as a warfare, and the Christian graces are also represented under the figure of pieces of armour (Eph. 6:11-17; 1 Thess. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:3, 4). The final blessedness of believers is attained as the fruit of victory (Rev. 3:21). From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: WAR, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity. The student of history who has not been taught to expect the unexpected may justly boast himself inaccessible to the light. "In time of peace prepare for war" has a deeper meaning than is commonly discerned; it means not merely that all things earthly have an end -- that change is the one immutable and eternal law -- but that the soil of peace is thickly sown with the seeds of war and singularly suited to their germination and growth. It was when Kubla Khan had decreed his "stately pleasure dome" -- when that is to say there were peace and fat feasting in Xanadu -- that he heard from afar Ancestral voices prophesying war. One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest of men, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let us have a little less of "hands across the sea," and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves to come like a thief in the night; professions of eternal amity provide the night.
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