fighting
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
describes someone or something that is currently in a battle or ready to struggle for something.
actively engaged in combat or showing a strong readiness to struggle for a cause.
Simple“The general led his fighting men into the valley at dawn.”
In context“The candidate maintained a fighting spirit throughout the campaign, even when the polling data suggested an inevitable defeat.”
Usage fighting fires · fighting the fire
From Middle English feghtyng, fyȝtynge, fightand, feghtand, feghtande, feightand, feȝtand, viȝtinde, feihtende, from Old English feohtende, from Proto-Germanic fehtandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic fehtaną (“to comb, struggle, contend with”), equivalent to fight + -ing.
From Middle English fightyng, fightynge, fiȝtinge, feȝtyng, from Old English fihtung (“fighting”), equivalent to fight + -ing.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.