encounter

• WordNet 3.6
  • v encounter contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle "Princeton plays Yale this weekend","Charlie likes to play Mary"
  • v encounter come together "I'll probably see you at the meeting","How nice to see you again!"
  • v encounter come upon, as if by accident; meet with "We find this idea in Plato","I happened upon the most wonderful bakery not very far from here","She chanced upon an interesting book in the bookstore the other day"
  • v encounter be beset by "The project ran into numerous financial difficulties"
  • v encounter experience as a reaction "My proposal met with much opposition"
  • n encounter a casual meeting with a person or thing
  • n encounter a minor short-term fight
  • n encounter a hostile disagreement face-to-face
  • n encounter a casual or unexpected convergence "he still remembers their meeting in Paris","there was a brief encounter in the hallway"
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• Interesting fact: To avoid long encounters with the press, President Ronald Reagan often took reporters' questions with his helicopter roaring in the background.
• • Encounter A meeting face to face; a running against; a sudden or incidental meeting; an interview. "To shun the encounter of the vulgar crowd."
  • Encounter A meeting, with hostile purpose; hence, a combat; a battle; as, a bloody encounter . "As one for . . . fierce encounters fit""To join their dark encounter in mid-air"
  • v. t Encounter To come against face to face; to meet; to confront, either by chance, suddenly, or deliberately; especially, to meet in opposition or with hostile intent; to engage in conflict with; to oppose; to struggle with; as, to encounter a friend in traveling; two armies encounter each other; to encounter obstacles or difficulties, to encounter strong evidence of a truth. "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him.""I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you."
  • v. i Encounter To meet face to face; to have a meeting; to meet, esp. as enemies; to engage in combat; to fight; as, three armies encountered at Waterloo. "I will encounter with Andronicus.""Perception and judgment, employed in the investigation of all truth, have in the first place to encounter with particulars."
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• Interesting fact: The largest indoor film set ever built was the landing site for the UFO in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Constructed inside a 10 million cubic foot hangar in Mobile, Alabama. it was 450 feet long by 250 feet wide and was 90 feet tall.
• • encounter To come upon or against; meet with; especially, to meet casually, unexpectedly, reluctantly, or the like.
  • encounter To meet antagonistically; engage in conflict of any kind with; contend with; make an attack upon.
  • encounter To oppose; oppugn.
  • encounter To befall; betide.
  • encounter Synonyms To confront, struggle with, contend against.
  • encounter To meet; come together; come into contact or collision.
  • encounter To meet in opposition or conflict; come together in combat; contend; fight.
  • n encounter A meeting, particularly a sudden or accidental meeting, of two or more persons or bodies of any kind; a coming together or in contact.
  • n encounter Specifically In physics, the coming within the sphere of one another's action of the rapidly moving molecules of a gaseous body. The word is so used by some writers in order to avoid collision, which might be understood to imply impact. The molecules of gases move in nearly rectilinear paths, until they come so close to one another that they are suddenly deflected. This very brief mutual action is the encounter. See gas.
  • n encounter A meeting in opposition or conflict of any kind; a conflict; a battle; specifically, a contest between individuals or a small number of men, or an accidental meeting and fighting of detachments.
  • n encounter Manner of encountering; mode of accost or address; behavior in intercourse.
  • n encounter Synonyms Encounter, Rencounter, Skirmish, Brush, colision, affair. As conflicts in war these are shorter, with fewer engaged, and of less importance, than those compared under battle. An encounter is often an accidental meeting, resulting in some conflict, but not suffered to grow into a general engagement. Rencounter is the same thing, expressed by a term less common. A skirmish is an irregular or desultory contest between parts of armies, as scouting parties or skirmish-lines, not generally resulting in battle. A brush is short and sharp, perhaps engaging the whole of some force for a time, but not being pushed into a long or hard-fought struggle. See strife.
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• • v.t Encounter en-kown′ter to meet face to face, esp. unexpectedly: to meet in contest: to oppose
  • n Encounter a meeting unexpectedly: an interview: a fight:
  • n Encounter (Shak.) behaviour
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• Elie Wiesel

  

  “I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.”
• Abraham H. Maslow

  

  “To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
• Georg C. Lichtenberg

  

  “He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage -- he won't encounter many rivals.”
• Ralph Waldo Emerson

  

  “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
• Friedrich Nietzsche

  

  “The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.”
• Marquis De Vauvenargues

  

  “We are almost always guilty of the hate we encounter.”

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