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Webster 1913 Edition

Rival

Ri′val

,
Noun.
[F.
rival
(cf. It.
rivale
), L.
rivales
two neigbors having the same brook in common, rivals, fr.
rivalis
belonging to a brook, fr.
rivus
a brook. Cf.
Rivulet
,
Rete
.]
1.
A person having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
[Obs.]
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The
rivals
of my watch, bid them make haste.
Shakespeare
2.
One who is in pursuit of the same object as another; one striving to reach or obtain something which another is attempting to obtain, and which one only can posses; a competitor;
as,
rivals
in love;
rivals
for a crown.
☞ “Rivals, in the primary sense of the word, are those who dwell on the banks of the same stream. But since, as all experience shows, there is no such fruitful source of coutention as a water right, it would continually happen that these occupants of the opposite banks would be at strife with one another in regard of the periods during which they severally had a right to the use of the stream . . . And thus ’rivals' . . . came to be used of any who were on any grounds in more or less unfriendly competition with one another.”
Trench.
Syn. – Competitor; emulator; antagonist.

Ri′val

,
Adj.
Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority;
as, rival lovers;
rival
claims or pretensions.
The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two
rival
confederacies of statesmen.
Macaulay.

Ri′val

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Rivaled
or
Rivalled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Rivaling
or
Rivalling
.]
1.
To stand in competition with; to strive to gain some object in opposition to;
as, to
rival
one in love
.
2.
To strive to equal or exel; to emulate.
To
rival
thunder in its rapid course.
Dryden.

Ri′val

,
Verb.
I.
To be in rivalry.
[Obs.]
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition

Rival

RI'VAL

,
Noun.
[L. rivalis; Heb. to contend, to strive. See Raffle.]
1.
One who is in pursuit of the same object as another; one striving to reach or obtain something which another is attempting to obtain, and which one only can possess; a competitor; as rivals in love; rivals for a crown. Love will not patiently bear a rival.
2.
One striving to equal or exceed another in excellence; as two rivals in eloquence.
3.
An antagonist; a competitor in any pursuit or strife.

RI'VAL

,
Adj.
Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority; as rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions.
Equal in years and rival in renown.

RI'VAL

, v.t.
1.
To stand in competition with; to strive to gain the object which another is contending for; as, to rival one in love.
2.
To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
To rival thunder in its rapid course.

RI'VAL

,
Verb.
I.
To be competitors. [Not in use.]

Definition 2025

rival

rival

English

Noun

rival ‎(plural rivals)

  1. A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
    • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
      The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
    Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.‎
  2. Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
    As a social historian, he has no rival.‎
  3. (obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
    • William Shakespeare
      If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

rival ‎(not comparable)

  1. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.
    rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions
    • Macaulay
      The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.

Verb

rival ‎(third-person singular simple present rivals, present participle rivalling or rivaling, simple past and past participle rivalled or rivaled)

  1. (transitive) To oppose or compete with.
    to rival somebody in love
  2. To be equal to or to surpass another.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess:
      The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, […].
  3. To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
    • Dryden
      to rival thunder in its rapid course

Translations

Anagrams

Catalan

Adjective

rival m, f ‎(masculine and feminine plural rivals)

  1. rival

Related terms

Derived terms

  • rivalitzar

Noun

rival m, f ‎(plural rivals)

  1. rival

External links

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rīvālis, literally ‘person using the same stream as another’, from rīvus ‎(“small stream, brook”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʁival/

Adjective

rival m ‎(feminine singular rivale, masculine plural rivaux, feminine plural rivales)

  1. rival (attributively)

Noun

rival m ‎(plural rivaux, feminine rivale)

  1. rival

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ʀiˈvaːl]
  • Hyphenation: ri‧val

Adjective

rival ‎(not comparable)

  1. (economics, of a good) rivalrous
    • 2012, Michael Goldhammer, Geistiges Eigentum und Eigentumstheorie, Mohr Siebeck, page 196:
      Als zweites Argument gegen die Möglichkeit von geistigem Eigentum wird häufig vorgebracht, dass immaterielle Güter ihrer Natur nach nicht rival seien […]
      As a second argument against the possibility of intellectual property, it is often brought forward that immaterial goods are not rivalrous by nature

Declension

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin rivalis, via French rival

Noun

rival m ‎(definite singular rivalen, indefinite plural rivaler, definite plural rivalene)

  1. a rival

Derived terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin rivalis, via French rival

Noun

rival m ‎(definite singular rivalen, indefinite plural rivalar, definite plural rivalane)

  1. a rival

Derived terms

References

Portuguese

Noun

rival m f (plural rivais)

  1. rival (competitor with the same objective)

Synonyms

Adjective

rival m, f ‎(plural rivais, comparable)

  1. rival (standing in competition)

Related terms

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /rǐʋaːl/
  • Hyphenation: ri‧val

Noun

rìvāl m ‎(Cyrillic spelling рѝва̄л)

  1. adverse, rival

Declension

Spanish

Adjective

rival m, f ‎(plural rivales)

  1. adverse, rival

Noun

rival m, f ‎(plural rivales)

  1. rival

Synonyms

Related terms

Etymology

From Latin rīvālis ‎(literally “person using the same stream as another”), from rīvus ‎(“small stream, brook”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈraɪvəl/
  • Rhymes: -aɪvəl

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