quick and energetic; "a brisk walk in the park"; "a lively gait"; "a merry chase"; "traveling at a rattling rate"; "a snappy pace"; "a spanking breeze"
resist or confront with resistance; "The politician defied public opinion"; "The new material withstands even the greatest wear and tear"; "The bridge held"
elude, especially in a baffling way; "This behavior defies explanation"
a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war; "Grant won a decisive victory in the battle of Chickamauga"; "he lost his romantic ideas about war when he got into a real engagement"
battle or contend against in or as if in a battle; "The Kurds are combating Iraqi troops in Northern Iraq"; "We must combat the prejudices against other races"; "they battled over the budget"
not sympathetic or disposed toward; "unsympathetic officialdom"; "people unsympathetic to the revolution"; "his dignity made him seem aloof and unsympathetic"
(of characters in literature or drama) tending to evoke antipathetic feelings; "all the characters were peculiarly unsympathetic"