[wawr] 
noun, verb, warred, war⋅ring, adjective | 1. | a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air. |
| 2. | a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations: The two nations were at war with each other. |
| 3. | a contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns: the War of 1812. |
| 4. | active hostility or contention; conflict; contest: a war of words. |
| 5. | aggressive business conflict, as through severe price cutting in the same industry or any other means of undermining competitors: a fare war among airlines; a trade war between nations. |
| 6. | a struggle: a war for men's minds; a war against poverty. |
| 7. | armed fighting, as a science, profession, activity, or art; methods or principles of waging armed conflict: War is the soldier's business. |
| 8. | Cards.
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| 9. | Archaic. a battle. |
| 10. | to make or carry on war; fight: to war with a neighboring nation. |
| 11. | to carry on active hostility or contention: Throughout her life she warred with sin and corruption. |
| 12. | to be in conflict or in a state of strong opposition: The temptation warred with his conscience. |
| 13. | of, belonging to, used in, or due to war: war preparations; war hysteria. |
| war (wôr) n.
[Middle English warre, from Old North French werre, of Germanic origin; see wers- in Indo-European roots.] Word History: The chaos of war is reflected in the semantic history of the word war. War can be traced back to the Indo-European root *wers-, "to confuse, mix up." In the Germanic family of the Indo-European languages, this root gave rise to several words having to do with confusion or mixture of various kinds. One was the noun *werza-, "confusion," which in a later form *werra- was borrowed into Old French, probably from Frankish, a largely unrecorded Germanic language that contributed about 200 words to the vocabulary of Old French. From the Germanic stem came both the form werre in Old North French, the form borrowed into English in the 12th century, and guerre (the source of guerrilla) in the rest of the Old French-speaking area. Both forms meant "war." Meanwhile another form derived from the same Indo-European root had developed into a word denoting a more benign kind of mixture, Old High German wurst, meaning "sausage." Modern German Wurst was borrowed into English in the 19th century, first by itself (recorded in 1855) and then as part of the word liverwurst (1869), the liver being a translation of German Leber in Leberwurst. |
War
The Israelites had to take possession of the Promised Land by conquest. They had to engage in a long and bloody war before the Canaanitish tribes were finally subdued. Except in the case of Jericho and Ai, the war did not become aggressive till after the death of Joshua. Till then the attack was always first made by the Canaanites. Now the measure of the iniquity of the Canaanites was full, and Israel was employed by God to sweep them away from off the face of the earth. In entering on this new stage of the war, the tribe of Judah, according to divine direction, took the lead. In the days of Saul and David the people of Israel engaged in many wars with the nations around, and after the division of the kingdom into two they often warred with each other. They had to defend themselves also against the inroads of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. The whole history of Israel from first to last presents but few periods of peace. The Christian life is represented as a warfare, and the Christian graces are also represented under the figure of pieces of armour (Eph. 6:11-17; 1 Thess. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:3, 4). The final blessedness of believers is attained as the fruit of victory (Rev. 3:21).
war
In addition to the idioms beginning with war, also see all's fair in love and war; at war; been to the wars; declare war; tug of war.