Fight v.

Pa. t. and pa. pple. fought. Forms: Infin. 1 feohtan, fehtan, north. fehta, 3 fehten, south. vehten, (3 feahten, fahten, fuhten), 3–5 feȝt(e, (4 fett), 3–6 feghte, 4–8 Sc. fecht; 2–3 feihten, (4 feyȝtte), 5–6 feyght(yn, (5 fayȝte, 6 Sc. feicht), 6, 9 dial. feight; 2–3 fihten, Orm. fihhtenn, 3–5 fiȝte(n, fite(n, 4 south. viȝte, (4 fiȝhte, fyþt), 4–5 fighte(n, 4–6 fyghte, 9 dial. foight, fught, 3– fight. Pa. t. 1 feaht, fæht, pl. fuhton, (2 feight, 3 faht, fæht, feaht, feht, feoht, feuht, fuht), 3–5 faȝt(e, -ght(e, 3 south. vagt, (3 fachte, fagt, faþt), 3–5 foȝte, (5 foghte, fughte), (3 fougte, 4 fouhte, 6 fouȝte, foughted, fowght, 9 fout), 3–5 fauȝte, -ghte, (4 fauht, -th, fawght, 5 faughth, fawte, 6 faucht), (5 fat, 8–9 dial. or vulgar fit), 6– fought. Pa. pple. 1 fohten, 3–6 foghten, (3 fughten), 4 fouȝten, (fooȝte, fouȝte), 5–9 arch. foughten, (4 -yn, 6 fochin, 6 fowth, 6– fought), 7–9 dial. or vulgar fit, fitten. [A Com. WGer. strong vb.: OE. feohtan = OFris. fiuchta, OS. *fehtan (not recorded, but cf. the sb. fehta; Du. vechten), OHG. fehtan (MHG. vehten, mod.Ger. fechten):—OTeut. type *fehtan (faht, fuhtumês, fohtono-).

  The conjugation of this vb. is peculiar, because in all the other vbs. that have the u- and o- grades these are caused by the presence of a liquid or nasal; possibly the forms have been influenced by the analogy of flehtan to plait. Outside Teutonic the formal equivalent is L. pectĕre to comb, though the difference in sense causes some difficulty; see Brugmann, Grundriss, II. § 680.]

  1.  intr. To contend in battle or single combat.

c. 900.  Pol. Laws Alfred, vii. Be ðon ðe mon on cynges healle feohte.

a. 1000.  Riddles, vii. 5 (Gr.). Mec min frea feohtan hateð.

c. 1105.  Lay., 3939. Heo bi-gunnen to fuhten.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3227.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5666 (Cott.). Feghtand fand he Iuus tua.

1352.  Minot, Poems, v. 78.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, VIII. xxix. (1554), 194 b.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xii. 291. Yf we fyghte strongly, he is deed wythout remedy.

15[?].  Sir A. Barton, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 73. Feight till ye heare my whisstill blowe.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. iv 151. We rose both at an instant and fought a long houre by Shrewsburie clocke.

1603.  Florio, Montaigne, I. iii. (1632), 7. Captaine Bayart … having stoutly foughten so long as he could stand.

1700.  Congreve, Way of World, III. x. I thought once they wou’d have fit.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. xii. 263. In the case of the savages, I always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., ii. Not that I was afraid of fighting, for now I had been three years at Blundell’s, and foughten, all that time, a fight at least once every week, till the boys began to know me.

  b.  Const. against, † on or † upon, with (a person); hence, to fight together.

O. E. Chron., an. 514. Stuf & Wihtgar fuhtun wiþ Brettas.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Luke xiv. 31. Oððe ȝyf hwylc cynincg wyle faran & feohtan aȝen oॠerne cyning.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 129. Þe King constantinus ouer com at þet folc þe feiht to ȝeines him.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 1842. He shollde fihhtenn Onnȝæn an drake.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6405 (Cott.).

a. 1400.  Burgh Laws, xii. (Sc. Stat., I). He may nocht fecht apon þe burges.

1473.  Warkw., Chron., 6. Ther thei faughthe strongly togedere.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Macc. xii. 13. The kynges aboute vs haue foughten agaynst vs.

1611.  Bible, 1 Sam. xvii. 10. And the Philistine said, I defie the armies of Israel this day; giue me a man, that we may fight together.

1678.  Lady Chaworth, in Hist. MSS. Comm., 12th Rep. App. v. 48. The King of France is gone backe to Paris; some of his ships have fought with some Dutch ones, and the latter have had the advantage.

1715.  De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. iv. (1841), I. 86. It may be your mother may fight with you.

1804.  R. Anderson, Cumbrld. Ball., 83.

  c.  Const. for = on behalf of (a person, etc.); on account of (a thing); hence in indirect passive.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 15734 (Cott.).

c. 1320.  Sir Tristr., 1034. He fauȝt for ingland.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., xlix. 220 (Harl. MS.). I wolle Fite for hir.

1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. lv. 19. Angels, whome wee know to feyght in battellray for us.

1671–3.  Marvell, Reh. Transp., Wks. II. 212. I think the cause was too good to have been fought for.

1782.  Wolcot, in J. J. Rogers, Opie (1878), 22. He is now turned Quixote, and is ready to fight up to his knees in blood for her Majesty.

1847.  Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. Ranke’s History of Servia, xx. 364. The principle of emancipating the Christian population, for which the Servians fought, obtained a wider and more general basis.

  d.  Proverb.

a. 1300[?].  Salomon & Sat. (1848), 272. Wel fyþt þat wel flyþ, quoþ Hendyng.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., lvii. 374 (Add. MS.). It is an olde sawe, he feghtith wele that fleith faste.

  e.  To bring or get (oneself) into, out of, to (a certain condition, etc.) by fighting.

1640.  Lawfulness Expedit. Eng., 3. If we bee invaded either by sea or land, we must doe as a man that fighteth himselfe out of prison.

1643.  S. Marshall, Let., 26. So many unworthy Gentlemen fight to destroy a Parliament, and thereby fight themselves and posterity into slavery.

1873.  The Saturday Review, XXXV. 10 May, 630/2. Claudian is arrested among the olive groves of Surrentum, at Numerian’s instigation, and condemned as a Christian. With many others of his sect his sentence is to fight himself to death with trained gladiators in the amphitheatre.

  f.  Phrases. To fight with one’s own shadow: to struggle vainly; to talk at random. Cf. Gr. σκιαμαχεῖν. For to fight at sharp, to fight (for) one’s own hand(s), to fight one’s heart out, to fight the tiger, to fight tooth and nail: see HAND, HEART, SHARP, TIGER, TOOTH. For That cock won’t fight: see COCK sb.¹ 2 c.

1579.  Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 377. In which argument he fighteth with his owne shadowe.

  2.  transf. and fig. a. To contend, strive for victory, struggle, engage in conflict. Const. as in 1.

c. 1000.  Sal. & Sat. 499 (Gr.). Þonne feohteð se feond.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 151. Fihteð wið þe alde neddre.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 137. Þe flesliche lustes þe fihteð togenes þe soule.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xviii. 5. His body in þe whilke he faght wiþ þe fend.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XXII. 65. To fighten and fenden ous · fro fallyng in-to synne.

1483.  Caxton, G. de la Tour, D iij. Alwey fyghtynge ageynst the fire of lecherye.

1582.  Bentley, Mon. Matrones, ii. 17. I haue accepted thy great enimies, that is, the diuell, the world, and the flesh, against whome for my sake thou foughtedst so sore on the crosse.

1611.  Bible, 1 Cor. ix. 26. So fight I, not as one that beateth the ayre.

1645.  E. Calamy, Indictm. agst. Eng., 9. Men that fight against a Reformation: That fight themselves into Popery, Slavery, and Beggery.

1733.  Pope, Ess. Man, III. 305.

1855.  Tennyson, Maud, III. vi. 57. It is better to fight for the good than to rail at the ill.

1875.  J. C. Wilcocks, The Sea-Fisherman, 163. These larger fish fight well, sometimes requiring five or six minutes to kill them, and always causing the landing-net to be brought into use.

  b.  To fight up against: to struggle against (something of overwhelming power).

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 54 (Sword). The Marquis d’E—— had fought up against his condition with great firmness; wishing to preserve, and still shew to the world, some little fragments of what his ancestors had been—their indiscretions had put it out of his power.

1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit. (1847), II. 142. I soon felt that human nature itself fought up against this wilful resignation of intellect.

1838.  Lytton, Alice, VII. v. Lumley fought up against his own sensations.

  c.  To clash or jar with. rare.

a. 1624.  H. Swinburne, Spousals (1686), 8. This distinction fighteth with the former definition of Spousals.

1645.  Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 81. It cannot be meant of Christ personally, for so it should fight with the scope of Paul, who proveth the promise of life eternal to be made to all believers.

1876.  Miss Yonge, Womankind, xv. 116. If it be an object not to be expensive, choose durable colours, and let the pièce de resistance of your dress be one of those tints that ‘fight’ with the fewest colours, fade the least, and clean the best.

  † d.  To operate as an argument, ‘militate.’

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xiv. 213. All the reasons which thou alledgest against the immortalitie of the soule, doe feight directly to the proofe of it.

  3.  quasi-trans. with cognate object. Also † to fight it.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17089 (Cott.).

1513.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xxxi. 45. There was a sore batayle, and well foughten hande to hande.

1526–34.  Tindale, 1 Tim. vi. 12. Fyght a good fyght of fayth.

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 220. I shall neuer be able to fight a blow.

1606.  G. W[oodcocke], trans. Hist. Ivstine, 68 a. Their was a field fought betweene the fugetiue senators and himselfe: in which, the Tyrant hauing the vpper hand, he drew so many of them as he had taken prisoners, in tryumph through the face of the citty.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 765.

1769.  Goldsmith, Roman History (1786) II. 498. The senate dispatched their ambassadors to Alaric, desiring him either to grant them peace, upon reasonable terms, or to give them leave to fight it with him, in the open field.

1776.  Hurst, in Trial of Nundocomar, 64/1. The battle of Buzar was fought the 23d of October.

1819.  Shelley, Peter Bell, VI. ix. 5.

1847.  Marryat, Childr. N. Forest, xxvii. Turenne, who had taken the command of the French army, followed him, and a severe action was fought in the streets of the suburb of St. Antoine, in which neither party had the advantage.

  b.  To maintain (a cause, quarrel) by fighting. Often transf., to fight an action (at law), a case, etc.

1600.  Shaks., As You Like It, V. iv. 49. I haue had foure quarrels, and like to haue fought one.

1713.  Addison, Cato, I. i.

1784.  Bage, Barham Downs, I. 239. We fought this business four whole days and nights.

1868.  Yates, The Rock Ahead, III. III. v. 195. Gilbert Lloyd saw that there was no use fighting the question any longer.

1893.  Law Times, XCIV. 559/1. If I had had my way, I would have fought every one of these actions.

  c.  To win or make (one’s way) by fighting.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 869.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., iv. (1889), 36. A school which was not frequented by persons of rank, and where no one knew whether a boy was heir to a principality, or would have to fight his own way in the world.

  4.  trans. To combat; to engage or oppose in battle; to war against.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Æneid, VII. 654.

1794.  Southey, Botany-Bay, Ecl. ii. ’Tis a fine thing to fight the French for fame!

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 221. Then will I fight him, and will break his pride.

  b.  transf. and fig.

1784.  Cowper, Task, III. 560.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., cxiv. 9.

1852.  M. Arnold, Tristr. & Iseult, xiv.

  c.  To beat, flog. Chiefly absol. Obs. exc. dial.

1573.  Tusser, Husb., lxxvii. (1878), 169. A wand in thy hand, though ye fight not at all, makes youth to their businesse better to fall.

1875.  Parish, Sussex Gloss., s.v. A standard complaint of parents against a school-teacher is ‘I wants more learning and less fighting.’

1877.  N. W. Linc. Gloss. ‘I sha’ n’t let our Bob go to school no more, master feights bairns.’

  5.  To contend in single combat for (a prize).

1826.  Scott, Woodst., xiv. I have been accounted a master of fence, and have fought prizes when I was unregenerated.

1835.  Browning, Paracelsus, IV. 119.

  6.  To cause to fight; to set on to fight.

c. 1680.  Hickeringill, Wks. (1716), II. 528. The Prince of Poets (the first, in Time as well as Excellence) never fights his Champion Achilles till he has first buckled on him his Armour of Proof.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xvi. The nobles and gentry had fought cocks, and hearkened to the wanton music of the minstrel.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. iv. A tract of suburban Sahara, where tiles and bricks were burnt, bones were boiled, carpets were beat, rubbish was shot, dogs were fought, and dust was heaped by contractors.

  7.  To command, manage, or manœuvre (troops, a ship, gun, etc.) in battle.

1779.  J. Burgoyne, Lett. to Constituents (ed. 3), 15. I know government were not strangers to my intention of fighting my own regiment as colonel.

1812.  J. B. Skerrett, in Examiner, 28 Sept., 615/1. Killed, gallantly fighting his gun, at the bridge.

1843.  Blackw. Mag., LIV. 216. He lights his vessel well.

1862.  Gen. Lee, in Century Mag., XXXIV. May (1887), 150/1. General A. P. Hill … fights his troops well and takes good care of them.

  8.  With adverbs. To fight back: to resist. To fight down: to overcome. To fight off: (a) trans. to deliver oneself with effort from; to repel, lit. and fig.; (b) intr. to try to back out of anything. † To fight over: to fight one after another. To fight out: to settle (a dispute) by fighting, to fight to the end; often to fight it out.

1548.  W. Patten, in Arber’s Garner, III. 109. Their Herald gave my Lord’s Grace no warning, the which by him, if they had meant to fight it out.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., V. iii. 102.

a. 1732.  T. Boston, Crook in Lot (1805), 99. It is better to yield to providence, than to fight it out.

1787.  Burke, Corr. (1844), III. 49. You perceive the manner in which Anderson fights off.

1800.  Dundas, in Owen, Wellesley’s Desp., 556. I must therefore fight it down.

1810.  Bentham, The Elements of the Art of Packing (1821), 51. After fighting off till judgment, the swindler, with another man’s money in his pocket.

1831.  Examiner, 193/2. Stand to, and fight it out without fear.

1833.  T. E. Hook, The Widow and the Marquess (1842), 242. Fight off the wedding, if you please: be ill—make any excuse—but do not irritate my father by a plump denial, and, least of all, by refusing his living.

1886.  Law Times Rep. LV. 283/1. The issues which are not fought out.

1890.  John Bull, 5 April, 229/2. These people were fighting back the diseases manfully.

  9.  To fight shy. perh. orig. to lose confidence in battle; recorded only in the sense: To keep aloof, avoid intercourse with a person, evade an undertaking, etc. Const. of. Similarly in 15th c. To fight sore at heart.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, iv. 125. He knewe well he sayd trouth and beganne to fyghte sore atte his herte.

1778.  Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, Nov. I fight very shy with Mr. Seward, and as he has a great share of sense and penetration, and not a little one of pride and reserve, he takes the hint.

1786.  Mackenzie, The Lounger, No. 98, 16 Dec., ¶ 2. I fought a little shy, as the saying is.

1821.  W. Irving, Life & Lett. (1864) II. 44. I have been sadly bothered with the same evil of late, and have had to fight shy of invitations that would exhaust time and spirits.

1867.  Froude, Short Stud. (ed. 2), 138. If he sports loose views on morals at a decent dinner party, the better sort of people fight shy of him, and he is not invited again.