"battles" in the noun sense
1. battle, conflict, fight, engagement
a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war
"Grant won a decisive victory in the battle of Chickamauga"
"he lost his romantic ideas about war when he got into a real engagement"
2. struggle, battle
an energetic attempt to achieve something
"getting through the crowd was a real struggle"
"he fought a battle for recognition"
3. conflict, struggle, battle
an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals
"the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph"
"battles" in the verb sense
1. battle, combat
battle or contend against in or as if in a battle
"The Kurds are combating Iraqi troops in Northern Iraq"
"We must combat the prejudices against other races"
"they battled over the budget"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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