fighting

▪ I. fighting, vbl. n.
    (ˈfaɪtɪŋ)
    [f. fight v. + -ing¹.]
    1. The action of the vb. fight in various senses; an instance of the same.

a 1225 Ancr. R. 228 Þe ueorðe uroure is, sikernesse of Godes helpe iðe vihtunge aȝein. 1340 Ayenb. 239 He hedde arered and ymad manye werren and manye viȝtinges. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop, etc. (1889) II. 310 The fyghtynge of the wymmen. 1535 Coverdale 1 Esdras iv. 6 The other y{supt} medle not with warres and fightinge. 1724 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 58, I have had fighting enough..upon these points of honour. 1828–40 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 172 It was impossible to come to close fighting. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 231 While they were..receiving the rewards of their fightings.

    † 2. An alleged designation for a company of beggars. Obs.

1486 Bk. St. Albans F vj b, A Fightyng of beggers.

    3. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as fighting-day, fighting-face, fighting-gear, fighting-ground, fighting-line, fighting-order, fighting-ship, fighting-song, fighting-strength, fighting-trim, fighting weight.

1778 Biog. Brit. (ed. 2) I. 240 note, He was a coward who had his *fighting days.

1879 Browning Halbert & Hob 58 With an outburst blackening still the old bad *fighting-face.

1816 Scott Pibroch of Donuil Dhu, Come with your *fighting gear, Broadswords and targes.

1845 James A. Neil vii, We might contrive to get into better *fighting ground.

1883 Daily News 21 Sept. 5/4 Detachments..all in full *fighting order.

1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 185 No *fighting ship is worth anything now-a-days without coal and speed.

1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxviii. 379 Now this is a *fighting song.

1580 Sidney Ps. xviii. 11 My *fighting strength, by thy strength, strengthned was.

1886 J. K. Laughton in Dict. Nat. Biog. VI. 387/1 The urgent necessity of keeping the ship at all times in perfect *fighting trim.

1884 Boy's Own Paper 2 Feb. 275/1 Twelve stone two was his *fighting weight. 1938 L. A. G. Strong Shake Hands iv. 43 Willard's height was six feet five, and his fighting weight in the neighbourhood of seventeen stone.

    b. Special comb.: fighting chair U.S., a fixed chair on a launch, for use when catching large fish; fighting chance, an opportunity of succeeding by great effort; fighting-cock, see cock n.¹ 2 b.; fighting drunk, -tight adjs., colloq., drunk to a state of quarrelsomeness; fighting-field = battle-field; fighting-fit a., fit to fight; fit enough to take part in a fight; hence fighting-fitness; fighting fund, a sum of money raised to finance a cause or campaign; fighting-lanterns, lanterns used during night actions; fighting mad a. colloq. (orig. U.S.), furiously angry (cf. mad a. 5); fighting-sails (see quot. 1867); † fighting-school, a gymnasium; † fighting-stead Sc., battle-field; fighting-stopper Naut. (see quot.); fighting-top Naut., a circular platform placed at an elevation on the mast of a warship, on which guns and armed men can be stationed; † fighting-wise, battle array.

1950 Gabrielson & La Monte Fisherman's Encycl., Note the fishing chair—or ‘*fighting chair’ as they are sometimes called. 1967 L. James Chameleon File (1968) ix. 110 He walked over to a revolving chair bolted to the deck... ‘This is the throne from which we catch the marlin... It is called a {oqq}fighting chair{cqq}.’

1889 Kansas Times & Star 20 Feb., With a somewhat divided party, but having a *fighting chance of success. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 295/1 The captain decided to..land the sailor so as to give him a fighting chance for his life in the hospital. 1894 Congress. Rec. 1 Feb. 1786/1 He can not be beaten out of hand. He will have a fighting chance. 1971 ‘H. Calvin’ Poison Chasers xiii. 170 To concoct some fiendish scheme that might like give youse a fightin' chance.

1908 Daily Chron. 17 Nov. 4/7 Those who are acting like hooligans or who are ‘*fighting’ drunk. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 Oct. 3/3 Jim's Sarah she come 'ome fighting drunk the other night.

1676 Dryden Aurengz. ii. i. 935 In *Fighting Fields, where our Acquaintance grew.

1891 Kipling Life's Handicap 313 He did not feel *fighting-fit that morning. 1963 Lancet 19 Jan. 174/1 Weatherbeaten ‘fighting fit’ soldiers.

1894 H. Drummond Ascent of Man 267 Fitness in the stormy days of the world's animal youth was necessarily *fighting-fitness.

1940 Economist 9 Mar. 411/2 The additional proposal that each industry should raise a ‘*fighting fund’ to assist its exporters. 1940 N. Marsh Death at Bar ii. 31 Another ten bob for the fighting fund.

1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Fighting-lanterns.

1896 W. James Let. 5 Feb. (1920) II. 32 If any other country's ruler had expressed himself with equal moral ponderosity would n't the population have gone twice as *fighting-mad as ours? 1952 A. Grimble Pattern of Islands 86 Otherwise..the spell..could not succeed in sending Biribe fighting-mad.

1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xii. 58 If you see your chase strip himselfe into *fighting sailes. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Fighting-sails, those to which a ship is reduced when going into action; formerly implying the courses and topsails only.

1535 Coverdale 2 Macc. iv. 12 He durst make a *fightinge scole vnder y⊇ castell.

1375 Barbour Bruce xv. 378 [He] wes ded richt in that ilk *fechting-sted.

1881 Hamersly's Naval Encycl., *Fighting-stopper, an arrangement of two dead-eyes, connected by rope laniards, and furnished each with a tail of rope. When a shroud is parted in action, the tails embrace the severed parts, and then they are hauled together by the laniard.

a 1889 Chicago Tribune (Barrère & Leland), A quarter of a dollar would buy enough sour mash to make an ordinary man *fighting tight.

1896 Naval Annual i. 32 The foremast has two *fighting-tops... The mainmast has only one fighting-top. 1915 Nature XCVI. 182/1 On board our battleships a range-finder of this kind is placed in one of the fighting-tops on the masts. 1958 O. Warner Portrait Ld. Nelson xii. 352 Fired from above, from a fighting top in the Redoutable, it [sc. a cannon-ball] had penetrated deep into Nelson's chest.

c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 267 Had I founded in fere, in *feȝtyng wyse, I haue a hauberghe at home and a helme boþe.

▪ II. fighting, ppl. a.
    (ˈfaɪtɪŋ)
    [f. as prec. + -ing².]
    1. That fights, able and ready to fight, bearing arms, militant, warlike. a. of persons, their attributes, etc.

a 1340 Hampole Psalter xiv. 1 Tabernakill propirly is þe mansyon of feghtand men. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 3 Þis fiȝting kirke. ? a 1400 Arthur 318 Þowsandez ten Of hardy & welle fyghtyng Men. c 1500 Melusine 128, xxti thousand fyghtyng men. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 113 O step betweene her, and her fighting Soule. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 59 No more..then Souldiers fight without a fighting Captain. 1855 Macaualy Hist. Eng. III. 233 The fighting men of the garrison.

fig. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 345 To note the fighting conflict of her hew, How white and red, ech other did destroy.

    b. of natural or mechanical agents.

13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 404 On folde no flesch styryed þat þe flod nade al freten with feȝtande waȝez. 1641 Wilkins Math. Magick ii. iv. (1648) 173 These fighting images. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 1015 The shock Of fighting Elements.

    c. Of words or speeches. Also transf. colloq. (orig. U.S.).

1876 ‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer i. 9 You're a fighting liar, and darn't take it up. 1917 R. W. Lardner Gullible's Travels 209 You know they's lots o' words that's called fightin' words. Some o' them starts a brawl, no matter who they're spoke to. 1930 Economist 23 Aug. 374/2 The trade..has a direct interest in the possible findings of the Royal Commission on Licensing, and ‘fighting’ speeches..should possibly be interpreted with due reference to this fact. 1959 Listener 12 Feb. 302/3 Tom Fallon..came out with fighting if rather catchpenny words.

    d. Fighting French, a name given to the Free French armed forces during the German occupation of France in the 1939–45 war.

1943 New Statesman 20 Nov. 327/1 Between them, the people of the Lebanon and the Fighting French have made an ugly problem for each other and for us. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 791O/1 Outside France, Gen. Charles de Gaulle had started his ‘Free French’ (later ‘Fighting French’) movement as early as June 18, 1940.

    2. Comb.: fighting crab (see quot. 1868); fighting fish, a Siamese fish (Betta pugnax); fighting sandpiper, the ruff (Machetes pugnax).

1868 Wood Homes without H. iv. 90 The Fighting Crab (Gelasimus bellator).

    Hence ˈfightingly adv., pugnaciously.

1632 Brome Northern Lasse i. iii, She frown'd..and look'd fightingly. 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 60 Why should they be so fightingly inclined?

Oxford English Dictionary