contest

Etymology

PIE word *tréyes From French contester, from Old French, from Latin contestor (“to call to witness”).

noun

1. (uncountable) Controversy; debate.
   no contest
2. (uncountable) Struggle for superiority; combat.
3. (countable) A competition.
   The child entered the spelling contest.

verb

1. (intransitive) To contend.
   I will contest for the open seat on the board.
   1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth As for the difficulty or obscurity of an argument, that does but add to the pleasure.of contesting with it when there are hopes of victory
2. (transitive) To call into question; to oppose.
   The rival contested the dictator's re-election because of claims of voting irregularities.
   Few philosophical aphorisms have been more frequently repeated, few more contested than this. 1848, John Daniel Morell, Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century
   On the other hand, the nationalitarian phenomenon is one in which the struggle against the imperialist powers of occupation has as its object, beyond the clearing of the national territory, the independence and sovereignty of the national State, uprooting in depth the positions of the ex-colonial power— the reconquest of the power of decision in all domains of national life, the prelude to that reconquest of identity which is at the heart of the renaissance undertaken on the basis of fundamental national demands, and ceaselessly contested, by every means available, on every level, and notably on the internal level'. 1981, Anouar Abdel-Malek, Social Dialectics: Nation and Revolution, page 13
3. (transitive) To strive earnestly to hold or maintain; to struggle to defend.
   The troops contested every inch of ground.
4. (law) To make a subject of litigation; to defend, as a suit; to dispute or resist, as a claim, by course of law.