rival
nounadjectiveverbcommon in dialogue
- //ˈɹaɪvəl//
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.
noun
- 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.
Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.
Every day is like survival / You're my lover, not my rival
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.
- 2
Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
As a social historian, he has no rival.
- 3
obsoleteOne having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin rīvālis (literally “person using the same stream as another”). By surface analysis, Latin rīvus + -al.
adjective
- 1
Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.
rival lovers
rival claims or pretensions
The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.
Japan’s largest yakuza crime syndicate has pledged to end its longstanding war with a rival faction and refrain from causing “trouble,” authorities said, as the mafia-like groups contend with falling membership and increased police crackdowns.
verb
- 1
To oppose or compete with.
to rival somebody in love
- 2
To be equal to, or match, or to surpass another.
But the Waverley is still the best-placed station of any British city, and gives the arriving stranger a first impression rivalled in Europe only by the exclusively watery station approach at Venice.
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.
to rival thunder in its rapid course
Forms
- plural
- rivals
- past tense
- rivaled, rivalled
- past participle
- rivaled, rivalled
- present participle
- rivaling, rivalling
- third person singular
- rivals
rival · 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…
rivalry · An ongoing relationship between (usually two) rivals who…river · A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass,…River · A unisex given name.