Definition of "dispute"

A "who-does-what" labour dispute at Swindon works during April led to a stoppage of work on the construction of the new 0-6-0 Type 1 diesel-hydraulic locomotives of the D9500 series and work had not been resumed as we closed for press.

1964 June, “Motive Power Miscellany: BR Workshops”, in Modern Railways, page 432

Addicted more / To contemplation and profound dispute.

1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 4

"Now, though thy thoughts are green and tender, as becometh one so young, yet are they those of a thinking brain, and in truth thou dost bring back to my mind certain of those old philosophers with whom in days bygone I have disputed at Athens, and at Becca in Arabia, for thou hast the same crabbed air and dusty look, as though thou hadst passed thy days in reading ill-writ Greek, and been stained dark with the grime of manuscripts."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

to seize goods under the disputed authority of writs of assistance

1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent

to dispute the possession of the ground with the Spaniards

1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company

Dispute it [grief] like a man.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]