Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To be in contention or conflict with: oppose the enemy force.
- transitive v. To be resistant to: opposes new ideas.
- transitive v. To place opposite in contrast or counterbalance.
- transitive v. To place so as to be opposite something else.
- intransitive v. To act or be in opposition.
- idiom as opposed to In contrast to: "a Baroque violin that ... uses gut strings as opposed to metal-wound ones” ( William Zagorski).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To attempt to stop the progression of.
- v. To object to.
- v. To present or set up in opposition; to pose.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive v. To place in front of, or over against; to set opposite; to exhibit.
- transitive v. To put in opposition, with a view to counterbalance or countervail; to set against; to offer antagonistically.
- transitive v. To resist or antagonize by physical means, or by arguments, etc.; to contend against; to confront; to resist; to withstand
- transitive v. To compete with; to strive against.
- intransitive v. To be set opposite.
- intransitive v. To act adversely or in opposition; -- with against or to.
- intransitive v. To make objection or opposition in controversy.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To set or place over against or directly opposite; confront or cause to confront, either literally or by way of comparison, contrast, etc.
- To expose; show; display.
- To propose; offer.
- To place or interpose as an obstacle; place in opposition, as for the purpose of contradicting, countervailing, offsetting, or withstanding and defeating something.
- To speak or act against; confront with adverse arguments or efforts; contradict; withstand; endeavor to frustrate or thwart.
- To hinder; resist effectually; prevent; defeat: as, the army was not able to oppose the enemy's progress.
- Synonyms Oppose, Resist, Withstand, combat, strive against, contravene. The first three words are all rather general, but oppose is not quite so strong as the others, as suggesting less of physical action; they all primarily convey the idea of receiving rather than making the attack, but oppose is least restricted to that meaning. See frustrate.
- To stand over against another or one another; be opposite.
- To interpose effort or objection; act or speak in opposition; be adverse or act adverse ly: sometimes with to or against.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. fight against or resist strongly
- v. be resistant to
- v. set into opposition or rivalry
- v. act against or in opposition to
- v. contrast with equal weight or force
- v. be against; express opposition to
Etymologies
Examples
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Making tough decisions that corporations and Wall Street oppose is never popular …. the poll numbers reflect how stupid some in America, like our troll really are.
Think Progress » Inhofe: There aren’t any ‘normal people’ in Washington.
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What I do oppose is forcing children (implicitly or explicitly) to pray to a god their religion does not recognize.
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Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts - who also voted against Sotomayor's nomination to the appeals court 11 years ago - said late last month he would again oppose her.
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Or, rather, undertaking fiscal initiatives that the monetary authorities oppose is likely to be directly counterproductive.
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What I oppose is a government policy that specifically favors ownership as a mode of housing compared to renting.
Matthew Yglesias » The High Cost of Subsidized Homeownership
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February 19th, 2010 at 1: 37 pm undertaking fiscal initiatives that the monetary authorities oppose is likely to be directly counterproductive.
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Liberals oppose from the left and govern from the right as the old saying has it, and I saw nothing over the past few days that promises anything better.
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Their utter gall in supporting a bill that their constituants oppose is appalling.
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I've noticed over time that your disapproval of someone [you oppose] is inversely proportionate to how well they are doing in their election.
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A Guardian/ICM poll showed 64% across Britain oppose religious schools – which is also ignored.
Maybe Ontario Dodged A Bullet With John Tory After All… « Unambiguously Ambidextrous
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