ADVERSARY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Adversary

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/ˈædvərsˌɛri/ Listen

noun

Adversary n. (pl. adversaries) One who is turned against another or others with a design to oppose or resist them; a member of an opposing or hostile party; an opponent; an antagonist; an enemy; a foe. "His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries." "Agree with thine adversary quickly." "It may be thought that to vindicate the permanency of truth is to dispute without an adversary."

The Adversary, The Satan, or the Devil.

Synonyms: Adversary, Enemy, Opponent, Antagonist. Enemy is the only one of these words which necessarily implies a state of personal hostility. Men may be adversaries, antagonists, or opponents to each other in certain respects, and yet have no feelings of general animosity. An adversary may be simply one who is placed for a time in a hostile position, as in a lawsuit, an argument, in chess playing, or at fence. An opponent is one who is ranged against another (perhaps passively) on the opposing side; as a political opponent, an opponent in debate. An antagonist is one who struggles against another with active effort, either in a literal fight or in verbal debate.

adjective

Adversary adj.

Opposed; opposite; adverse; antagonistic. (Archaic)

(Law) Having an opposing party; not unopposed; as, an adversary suit.

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Etymology of 'Adversary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Adversary" Quotes from Famous Books

... own hands, and denying herself a glass of white wine to save the paltry sum of sixpence, 'while her Husband was paying a Debt of several Guineas incurred by the Ace of Trumps being in the hands of his Adversary'—a scene which it is impossible to read aloud without a certain huskiness in the throat." [6] The last great cause of crime which the Enquiry considers, and with much learning and detail, is the condition of the poor. Here Fielding's views on our modern problem of the unemployed may be ...

— Henry Fielding: A Memoir • G. M. Godden

... God, how long shall the adversary do this dishonour: how long shall the enemy blaspheme thy Name, ...

— The Book of Common Prayer - and The Scottish Liturgy • Church of England

... rushed to the rescue; but before he reached his friend he was surrounded by a dozen yelling Indians. At the foremost of these he levelled his pistol, but the faithless weapon missed fire, and he was in the act of hurling it at his adversary, when a blow from behind felled him ...

— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne

... self-restraint. It is ever impressed upon them that there are courts of justice for the settlement of controversies. Law and order have become stock phrases, dinned into their ears at every turn. The man who would settle his difficulty by trying the physical metal of his adversary is of the past. By the new order he is taboo as a savage. Individual self-restraint rings out in our vocabulary as nationally descriptive. The babe at the mother's knee learns first the virtue of it; the child at school is tutored to it soundly; ...

— Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace Association • Intercollegiate Peace Association

... Smith is president) makes, among other things, the sacred knitted garments that are prescribed for every Mormon who takes the "Endowment Oaths," to be worn by him forever after as a shield "against the Adversary;" and these garments bear the label: "Approved by the Presidency. No knitted garment approved which does not bear this label." By which ingenious bit of religious commercialism, the sacred marks on the garments (accepted as a sort of passport to Heaven) have been ...

— Under the Prophet in Utah - The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft • Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins

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