Adjacent Words

Encounter definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ENCOUNT'ER, n. [L. contra, against,or rather rencontre.]
1. A meeting, particularly a sudden or accidental meeting of two or more persons.
To shun th' encounter of the vulgar crowd.
2. A meeting in contest; a single combat, on a sudden meeting of parties; sometimes less properly, a duel.
3. A fight; a conflict; a skirmish; a battle; but more generally, a fight between a small number of men,or an accidental meeting and fighting of detachments, rather than a set battle or general engagement.
4. Eager and warm conversation, either in love or anger.
5. A sudden or unexpected address or accosting.
6. Occasion; casual incident. [Unusual.]
ENCOUNT'ER, v.t.
1. To meet face to face; particularly, to meet suddenly or unexpectedly.
[This sense is now uncommon, but still in use.]
2. To meet in opposition, or in a hostile manner; to rush against in conflict; to engage with in battle; as, two armies encounter each other.
3. To meet and strive to remove or surmount; as, to encounter obstacles, impediments or difficulties.
4. To meet and oppose; to resist; to attack and attempt to confute; as, to encounter the arguments of opponents. Acts
17:18.
5. To meet as an obstacle. Which ever way the infidel turns, he encounters clear evidence of the divine origin of the scriptures.
6. To oppose; to oppugn.
7. To meet in mutual kindness. [Little used.]
ENCOUNT'ER, v.i. To meet face to face;to meet unexpectedly. [Little used.]
1. To rush together in combat; to fight; to conflict. Three armies encountered at Waterloo.
When applied to one party, it is sometimes followed by with; as, the christian army encountered with the Saracens.
2. To meet in opposition or debate.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a minor short-term fight [syn: brush, clash, encounter, skirmish]
2: a casual or unexpected convergence; "he still remembers their meeting in Paris"; "there was a brief encounter in the hallway" [syn: meeting, encounter]
3: a casual meeting with a person or thing [syn: encounter, coming upon]
4: a hostile disagreement face-to-face [syn: confrontation, encounter, showdown, face-off] v
1: come together; "I'll probably see you at the meeting"; "How nice to see you again!" [syn: meet, run into, encounter, run across, come across, see]
2: come upon, as if by accident; meet with; "We find this idea in Plato"; "I happened upon the most wonderful bakery not very far from here"; "She chanced upon an interesting book in the bookstore the other day" [syn: find, happen, chance, bump, encounter]
3: be beset by; "The project ran into numerous financial difficulties" [syn: run into, encounter]
4: experience as a reaction; "My proposal met with much opposition" [syn: meet, encounter, receive]
5: contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle; "Princeton plays Yale this weekend"; "Charlie likes to play Mary" [syn: meet, encounter, play, take on]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (encountered; encountering) Etymology: Middle English encountren, from Anglo-French encuntrer, from Medieval Latin incontrare, from Late Latin incontra toward, from Latin in- + contra against — more at counter Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. a. to meet as an adversary or enemy b. to engage in conflict with 2. to come upon face-to-face 3. to come upon or experience especially unexpectedly <encounter difficulties> intransitive verb to meet especially by chance II. noun Date: 14th century 1. a meeting between hostile factions or persons ; a sudden often violent clash <an encounter between the police and demonstrators> 2. a. a chance meeting <an accidental encounter> b. a particular kind of meeting or experience with another person <a romantic encounter> 3. a coming into the vicinity of a celestial body <the Martian encounter of a spacecraft>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v.tr. 1 meet by chance or unexpectedly. 2 meet as an adversary. --n. 1 a meeting by chance. 2 a meeting in conflict. 3 participation in an encounter group. Phrases and idioms: encounter group a group of persons seeking psychological benefit through close contact with one another. Etymology: ME f. OF encontrer, encontre ult. f. L contra against

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Encounter En*coun"ter, v. i. To meet face to face; to have a meeting; to meet, esp. as enemies; to engage in combat; to fight; as, three armies encountered at Waterloo. I will encounter with Andronicus. --Shak. Perception and judgment, employed in the investigation of all truth, have in the first place to encounter with particulars. --Tatham.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Encounter En*coun"ter, n. [OF. encontre, fr. encontrer. See Encounter, v. t.] 1. A meeting face to face; a running against; a sudden or incidental meeting; an interview. To shun the encounter of the vulgar crowd. --Pope. 2. A meeting, with hostile purpose; hence, a combat; a battle; as, a bloody encounter. As one for . . . fierce encounters fit. --Spenser. To join their dark encounter in mid-air. --Milton . Syn: Contest; conflict; fight; combat; assault; rencounter; attack; engagement; onset. See Contest.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Encounter En*coun"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Encountered; p. pr. & vb. n. Encountering.] [OF. encontrer; pref. en- (L. in) + contre against, L. contra. See Counter, adv.] To come against face to face; to meet; to confront, either by chance, suddenly, or deliberately; especially, to meet in opposition or with hostile intent; to engage in conflict with; to oppose; to struggle with; as, to encounter a friend in traveling; two armies encounter each other; to encounter obstacles or difficulties, to encounter strong evidence of a truth. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. --Acts xvii. 18. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(encounters, encountering, encountered) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you encounter problems or difficulties, you experience them. Every day of our lives we encounter stresses of one kind or another... VERB: V n 2. If you encounter someone, you meet them, usually unexpectedly. (FORMAL) Did you encounter anyone in the building?... = meet VERB: V n 3. An encounter with someone is a meeting with them, particularly one that is unexpected or significant. The author tells of a remarkable encounter with a group of South Vietnamese soldiers. N-COUNT: usu with supp 4. An encounter is a particular type of experience. ...a sexual encounter. ...his first serious encounter with alcohol. N-COUNT: usu with supp

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Meeting, rencounter, clash, collision. 2. Attack, onset, assault. 3. Conflict, combat, fight, contest, battle, engagement, action, skirmish, brush, affair. II. v. a. 1. Meet (suddenly), meet face to face. 2. Confront, face. 3. Meet with, fall upon, come upon. 4. Attack, engage with, contend against, join battle with, cope with, compete with, struggle with, strive with, fight with. III. v. n. Clash, skirmish, rencounter, fight, come into collision.

Moby Thesaurus

Olympic games, Olympics, accost, action, advance, affront, alight upon, altercation, approach, appropinquate, approximate, appulse, argument, assail, bang, bang into, battle, be exposed to, be subjected to, bear down on, bear down upon, bear up, blunder upon, bout, brave, breast, bring before, bring forward, bring to bay, bring up, brunt, brush, bulldozing, bulling, bump, bump into, cannon, carambole, carom, carom into, challenge, chance upon, clash, clash with, close, close in, close with, collide, collision, collision course, come, come across, come among, come closer, come forward, come into collision, come near, come on, come up, come up against, come upon, competition, concours, concuss, concussion, conflict, confront, confront each other, confront with, confrontation, contend with, contention, contest, crack up, crack-up, crash, crash into, cross swords with, crump, crunch, dare, dash into, defy, derby, disagreement, discover serendipitously, dispute, draw near, draw nigh, duel, endure, engage, engagement, envisage, experience, face, face with, fall across, fall among, fall foul of, fall in with, fall upon, feel, fight, fight hand-to-hand, foul, fray, front, gain upon, game, games, go, go through, grapple with, gymkhana, hammering, happen upon, have, hit, hit against, hit upon, hurt, hurtle, impact, impinge, impingement, join, joining, joust, knock, knock against, know, labor under, lay before, light upon, match, matching, mauling, meet, meet head-on, meet squarely, meet up with, meet with, meeting, narrow squeak, narrow the gap, near, near thing, near-miss, onslaught, pass through, pay, percuss, percussion, pitch upon, place before, present to, proximate, put it to, quarrel, rally, ramming, rencontre, run, run across, run into, run smack into, run up against, run upon, run-in, scrap, set before, set-to, shock, sideswipe, sidle up to, skirmish, slam into, sledgehammering, smack into, smash, smash into, smash up, smash-up, smashing, spend, stand under, stem, step up, strike, strike against, struggle, stumble on, stumble upon, suffer, sustain, take on, taste, test, thrusting, tilt, tournament, tourney, trial, tumble on, turn up, undergo, war, whomp, wrestle with