Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To oppose, contradict, or call into question.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To contradict or controvert; to oppose; to challenge or question the truth or validity of a given statement.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive v. To fight against; to attack; to be in conflict with; to oppose; to resist.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To fight against; oppose; resist.
- To attack; oppose, as by argument; make an assault upon.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of
Etymologies
Examples
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As for those places of Scripture which oppugn it, they will have spoken ad captum vulgi, and if rightly understood, and favourably interpreted, not at all against it; and as Otho Gasman, Astrol. cap.
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This is Naturae bellum inferre, to oppugn nature, and to make a strong body weak.
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Galenists oppugn Paracelsus, he brags on the other side, he did more famous cures by this means, than all the Galenists in Europe, and calls himself a monarch; Galen, Hippocrates, infants, illiterate, &c.
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Either, therefore, he who oppugns incorporeal quality seems also to oppugn unqualified matter; or separating the one from the other, he mutually parts them both.
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Scroderus (Andrea) who, all the world knows, set himself to oppugn
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Origen did mightily oppugn a new heresie which did springe vpp in his tyme/it was called the heresie of Helchesaites/and at lẽghth he did happily extinguishe it.
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A skeptic can only _doubt_, never _oppugn_ the gospel.
The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, May, 1880
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But in promiscuous company no prudent man will oppugn the merits of a contemporary in his own supposed department; contenting himself with praising in his turn those whom he deems excellent.
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To oppugn the superstitious opinions of man, is to commence hostilities with his imagination -- to attack his fancy -- to be at war with his organization -- to enter the lists with his habits, which are of themselves sufficient to identify with his existence, the most absurd, the most unfounded ideas.
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It is extremely rare to find men, who, to an enlarged mind, extensive knowledge, great talents, join either a well regulated imagination, or the courage necessary to successfully oppugn habitual errors; triumphantly to attack those chimerical systems, with which the brain has been inoculated from the first hour of its birth.
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