Library / English Dictionary

RIVAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: rivalled    , rivalling   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The contestant you hope to defeat

Example:

he wanted to know what the competition was doing

Synonyms:

challenger; competition; competitor; contender; rival

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("rival" is a kind of...):

contestant (a person who participates in competitions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rival"):

champ; champion; title-holder (someone who has won first place in a competition)

comer (someone with a promising future)

finalist (a contestant who reaches the final stages of a competition)

enemy; foe (a personal enemy)

favorite; favourite; front-runner (a competitor thought likely to win)

king; queen; world-beater (a competitor who holds a preeminent position)

runner-up; second best (the competitor who finishes second)

scratch (a competitor who has withdrawn from competition)

semifinalist (one of four competitors remaining in a tournament by elimination)

street fighter (a contestant who is very aggressive and willing to use underhand methods)

tier (any one of two or more competitors who tie one another)

tilter (someone who engages in a tilt or joust)

Derivation:

rival (be the rival of, be in competition with)

rivalrous (eager to surpass others)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be the rival of, be in competition with

Example:

we are rivaling for first place in the race

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "rival" is one way to...):

compete; contend; vie (compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "rival"):

outrival; outvie (be more of a rival than)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

rival (the contestant you hope to defeat)

rivalry (the act of competing as for profit or a prize)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be equal to in quality or ability

Example:

Her persistence and ambition only matches that of her parents

Synonyms:

equal; match; rival; touch

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "rival" is one way to...):

compete; contend; vie (compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others)

Verb group:

equal; equalise; equalize; equate; match (make equal, uniform, corresponding, or matching)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Dominants rarely tolerate rival breeders, and violently eject subordinates from the group if they feel threatened.

(Breeder meerkats age faster, but their subordinates still die younger, University of Cambridge)

On the other hand, possibly because he divined in Buck a dangerous rival, Spitz never lost an opportunity of showing his teeth.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I was through it, when a sudden fantastic impulse came upon me, and I went back to my successful rival, who looked nervously at the electric push.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In Jane's eyes she had been a rival; and well might any thing she could offer of assistance or regard be repulsed.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Stronger than reason, stronger than cloister teachings, stronger than all that might hold him back, was that old, old tyrant who will brook no rival in the kingdom of youth.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Already his opinion is quoted in the clubs as a rival to my own.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Whenever I marry, she continued after a pause which none interrupted, I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He might be jealous of her brother as a rival, but if more had seemed implied, the fault must have been in her misapprehension.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

These bacteria secrete a compound called "tunicamycin" to keep rival bacteria from reaching choice resources, like rotting plant material.

(Soil Bacterium Tapped for Penicillin Guard Duty, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

This villain’s policy was to murder, on one pretext or another, every man who showed such promise that he might in time come to be a dangerous rival.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)