combat

Etymology

Borrowed from French, from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).

noun

1. A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
   In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away. More men are on the way. Fighting in difficult country under every kind of hardship, American troops have held back overwhelming numbers of the communist invaders. September 1, 1950, Harry S. Truman, 0:56 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162
   Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat. 2012-03, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87
2. a struggle for victory

verb

1. (transitive) To fight; to struggle against.
   It has proven very difficult to combat drug addiction.
2. (intransitive) To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against).
   To combat with a blind man I disdain. 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes