Definition of "war"

war

/wɔː/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural wars
1. (uncountable) Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizeable groups, usually but not always involving active engagement of military forces.
  Quotations
  Come on, let vs deale wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to passe that when there falleth out any warre, they ioyne also vnto our enemies, and fight against vs, and so get them vp out of the land.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Exodus 1:10
  And when yee shall heare of warres, and rumors of warres, be yee not troubled: For such things must needs be, but the end shall not be yet.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Mark 13:7
  War is indeed a fearful thing and the more I see it the more dreadful it appears.
  1854, Prince George, letter to his wife from Crimea
  You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out... You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war.
  1864 Sept. 12, William Tecumseh Sherman, letter to the mayor of Atlanta & al.
  I've been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It's entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don't know the horrible aspects of war. I've been through two wars and I know. I've seen cities and homes in ashes. I've seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!
  1879 June 19, William Tecumseh Sherman, speech to the Michigan Military Academy
  Here Lee and Longstreet stood during most of the fighting [at Fredericksburg], and it is told that, on one of the Federal repulses from Marye's Hill, Lee put his hand upon Longstreet's arm and said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it."
  1907, Edward Porter Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate, page 302
  Nobody can deny that war is a profitable business for those who like that kind of money. War is an orgy of money, just as it is an orgy of blood.
  1922, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther, chapter 17, in My Life and Work, Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc.
  War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives... Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket—and are safely pocketed.
  1935, Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, page 1 & 7
  War is the greatest of all agents of change. It speeds up all processes, wipes out minor distinctions, brings realities to the surface. Above all, war brings it home to the individual that he is not altogether an individual.
  1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. III
  Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.
  1944 June 27, Herbert Hoover, speech to the Republican National Convention
  From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:WAR IS PEACEFREEDOM IS SLAVERYIGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
  1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, page 3
  War, huh, Good God, y'all!What is it good for?Absolutely nothing...
  1969, “War”, in Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong (lyrics), War & Peace, performed by Edwin Starr
  War. War never changes. The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower. But war never changes.
  1997, Ron Perlman, Fallout
  Edward Wilson, the inventor of the field of sociobiology, once wrote that "war is embedded in our very nature". This is a belief commonly held not just by sociobiologists but also by anthropologists and other students of human behaviour. They base it not only on the propensity of modern man to go to war with his neighbours (and, indeed, with people halfway around the world, given the chance) but also on observations of the way those who still live a pre-agricultural "hunter-gatherer" life behave... Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine... One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries... Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.
  2013 July 20, "Old Soldiers?", The Economist, Vol. 408, No. 8845
2. (countable) A particular conflict of this kind.
  Quotations
  All human tribes glad token seeIn the close of the wars of Grant and Lee.
  1865, Herman Melville, The Surrender at Appomattox
  A second challenge will be to implement, with our allies, a plan of stability in the Balkans, so that the region's bitter ethnic problems can no longer be exploited by dictators and Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic again to fight in another war.
  1999 Nov. 8, Bill Clinton, speech at Georgetown University
3. (countable, sometimes proscribed) Protracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered terrorists.
  Quotations
  Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.
  2001 Sept. 20, George W. Bush, speech before Congress
  "...These wars are not going away. This is at least a generational struggle."
  2021 Sept. 8, Seth G. Jones, quoted in Chris Moody, "Twenty Years after 9/11, Did US Win Its ‘War on Terror’?" Al-Jazeera
4. (countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularly
  1. (chiefly US) Campaigns against various social problems.
    Quotations
    The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party... Ask all our millions, north and south, whether they would vote now (were such a thing possible) to have our war for the Union expunged from history... and probably hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts, those memories and legends, ar the most ideal part of what we now own together, a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be willing, in cold blood, to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition.
    1906, William James, The Moral Equivalent of War
  2. (business) A protracted instance of fierce competition in trade.
  3. (crime) A prolonged conflict between two groups of organized criminals, usually over organizational or territorial control.
  4. (Internet) An argument between two or more people with opposing opinions on a topic or issue.
5. (obsolete, uncountable) An assembly of weapons; instruments of war.
  Quotations
  The God of Love himſelf inhabits there,With all his rage, and dread, and grief, and care,His complement of ſtores, and total war...
  1709, Matthew Prior, “Henry and Emma. […]”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan, […], published 1779, page 245
6. (obsolete) Armed forces.
  Quotations
  On thir imbattelld ranks the Waves return,And overwhelm thir Warr
  1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
7. (uncountable, card games) Any of a family of card games where all cards are dealt at the beginning of play and players attempt to capture them all, typically involving no skill and only serving to kill time.
  Quotations
  We played crazy eights, war, fifty-two card pickup. Rudy flipped the whole deck across the table at me and the cards sailed to the floor, kings, queens, deuces.
  2004, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven
verb
third-person singular simple present wars, present participle warring, simple past and past participle warred
1. (intransitive) To engage in conflict (may be followed by "with" to specify the foe).
  Quotations
  ...to war the Scot, and borders to defend...
  1595, Samuel Daniel, The First Four Books of the Civil Wars
  And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males
  1611, King James Bible, Book of Numbers, 31:7
  Once more vnto the Breach,Deare friends, once more...Be Coppy now to men of groſſer blood,And teach them how to Warre.
  1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i], page 77
  This vein of reflection, warring with his inner knowledge that he had been driven by fear and hatred . ., produced an exhausting whirl in his thoughts.
  1882, George Bernard Shaw, chapter 14, in Cashel Byron's Profession
  People keep on learning Soldiers keep on warring World keep on turning 'Cause it won't be too long
  1973, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “Higher Ground”, in Innervisions
  In a paradox, language wars against the world.
  1979 April 28, Gerry McNamara, “Life for Art's Sake”, in Gay Community News, page 11
2. (transitive) To carry on, as a contest; to wage.
  Quotations
  […], that thou by them mighteſt warre a good warfare, […].
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 Timothy 1:18, column 2