ppl. a. [f. CONTEST v. + -ED.] Disputed, contended for or about, made an object of contention or competition. Contested election: one which is disputed at the poll; formerly, and still in U.S., an election of which the validity or legality is challenged, called more recently a controverted election.
1672. Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. II. i. And from the French contested Milan take.
1727. Fielding, Love in Sev. Masq., Wks. 1775, I. 11. I shall be like a contested heir who spends his estate in the pursuit of it.
1771. Junius Lett., lix. (1798), II. 183. Contested elections shall … be determined with some decent regard to the merits of the case. The event of the suit is of no consequence to the Crown.
1780. Burke, Sp. prev. to Election, Wks. III. 355. A contested election in such a city as this is no light thing.
1841. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 44. I cannot afford the expense of a contested election.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. Pref. 68. The means of deciding contested points in history and science.
