Duel
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
"I have often thought since, how different my fate might have been, had I not fallen in love with Nora at that early age; and had I not flung the wine in Quin’s face, and so brought on the duel."
- 2 any struggle between two skillful opponents (individuals or groups) wordnet
- 3 Historically, the wager of battle (judicial combat).
- 4 a prearranged fight with deadly weapons by two people (accompanied by seconds) in order to settle a quarrel over a point of honor wordnet
- 5 Any battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas. broadly
"a sniper duel"
- 1 To engage in a battle.
"The two dogs were duelling for the bone."
- 2 fight a duel, as over one's honor or a woman wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Kyouichi Saionji, who he supposed would win the duel, has lost."
Etymology
From Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”). May have entered English through Middle French duel.
Related phrases
More for "duel"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.