Challenger

//ˈt͡ʃælɪn(d)ʒə// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A space shuttle, named after HMS Challenger (1858), destroyed on January 28, 1986 with loss of its seven-member crew.
Noun
  1. 1
    One who challenges.

    "[C]ertainly there is no true orator who is not a hero. […] He is challenger and must answer all comers."

  2. 2
    A steam locomotive of the 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement.

    "American Locomotive Company, which introduced the 4-6-6-4 (on Union Pacific) in 1936, constructed more Challengers than any other builder and, in Northern Pacific's Z-8 class, built the heaviest. NP owned 48 4-6-6-4's in three classes."

  3. 3
    the contestant you hope to defeat wordnet
  4. 4
    One who challenges.; One who confronts or opposes; a confronter, an opposer.

    "challengers of traditional attitudes"

  5. 5
    Alternative letter-case form of challenger (“a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals”). also, alt-of, attributive
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    One who challenges.; One who plays against the current champion of a contest or game in hopes of winning and becoming the new champion.

    "The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated."

  2. 7
    One who challenges.; One who brings a legal claim; a claimant, a plaintiff; also, one who accuses; an accuser. obsolete

    "Novv vvhen they vvere come before Appius, ſitting judicially upon his tribunall ſeate, the plaintife or challenger aforeſaid, declareth againſt her, […]"

  3. 8
    Often in the form Challenger: a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. also, attributive

Etymology

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English chalengere, chalangeour, chalenger (“one who causes injury, or makes false charges or slanderous statements; one who disputes, disputant, objector; claimant”), and then partly from both of the following: * From Middle English chalengen (“to accuse; to accuse falsely or maliciously, slander; to treat unjustly, wrong; to dispute, object; to make a claim or demand; to rebuke, scold; to issue a challenge to; etc.”) + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns). Chalengen is derived from Anglo-Norman chalenger, and Old French chalenger, chalongier (“to challenge, dispute; to claim; etc.”) (modern French challenger), from Late Latin calumniāre, the second-person singular present active imperative or indicative of calumnior (“to accuse falsely; to make hurtful untrue comments about; etc.”), from Latin calumnia (“artifice, trickery; false accusation; false statement; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₁l-, *keh₁l- (“to beguile, deceive”)) + -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). * From Old French chalengeor (“claimant, plaintiff; false accuser, slanderer”) (modern French challengeur), from chalenger, chalongier (see above) + -eor (variant of -or (suffix forming agent nouns)). By surface analysis, challenge (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

Etymology 2

From challenger.

Etymology 3

From challenger.

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