[ad. L. conflīct-us (u-stem) striking together, shock, fight, conflict, f. ppl. stem of conflīg-ĕre: see next. The OF. repr. of the L. was conflit (= It. conflitto), often written in 15–16th c. conflict, after L.; this may possibly have been the immediate source of our word.]
1. An encounter with arms; a fight, battle.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 90. Conflycte of werre, conflictus.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 403. Fiȝhtenge with shorte speres in conflictes.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 26. The lucklesse conflict with the Gyaunt stout.
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. v. 14. Fourty thousand were slaine in the conflict.
1848. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., II. 612. The bloody conflicts of the Druses and the Maronites.
attrib. 1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xviii. Then loudly rose the conflict-cry.
b. esp. A prolonged struggle.
1835–41. Thirlwall, Greece, V. 320. If his arms terminated the conflict [between Thebes and Phocis].
1884. Standard, 28 Feb., 5/1. They forced on the Boers, under menace of an all but exterminating conflict, offensive and superfluous conditions.
c. (without article or pl.) Fighting, contending with arms, martial strife.
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. xv. 17. They determined … manfully to trie the matter by conflict.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 104. In the hour of conflict.
1847. Tennyson, Princ., V. 480. Until they closed In conflict with the crash of shivering points.
2. transf. and fig.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. i. Also where there is any lacke of ordre nedes must be perpetuall conflicte.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 345. To note the fighting conflict of her hue, How white and red each other did destroy!
1684–5. Boyle, Min. Waters, 88. I found it to be evidently Alcalisate; insomuch that it would make a conflict with Acids.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. I. i. 2. The recurring conflicts between Church and State.
b. A mental or spiritual struggle within a man.
c. 1430. trans. T. à Kempis’ Consol., III. xxii. For, one temptacyon or tribulacion goinge awey, anoþer comeþ, yea, som tyme þe first conflicte yit duryng.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom. (1879), 374. A man … may abide the conflicte of all vices, but [lechery] he moste flee.
1557. Paynel, Barclay’s Jugurth, 118 b. After longe conflyct had within himselfe.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1698), I. xviii. 496. I must confess that I was in great conflicts of Mind at this time.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 668. Pale With conflict of contending hopes and fears.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. i. 13. Amidst the conflict of feelings under which he now listened.
c. The clashing or variance of opposed principles, statements, arguments, etc.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 38. Whether in some cases there may not be a conflict of principles.
1883. T. H. Green, Proleg. Ethics, § 324. There is no such thing really as a conflict of duties. Ibid., § 327. Authorities whose injunctions come into conflict with each other.
3. Dashing together, collision, or violent mutual impact of physical bodies.
1555. Eden, Decades, 92. As soone as they were nowe entered into the maine sea, such sourges and conflictes of water arose ageynst them.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., vii. 232. The common Motion of Matter proceding from external Impulse and Conflict.
1832. Nat. Philos., Electro-Magnet., xii. § 253 (Useful Knowl. Soc.). He conceived that a continued series of electric shocks took place … a condition which he expressed by the term Electric Conflict.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxix. (1856), 253. The less perilous [must be] the conflicts of the ice-masses in their rotation.
