"encounters" in the noun sense
1. brush, clash, encounter, skirmish
a minor short-term fight
2. meeting, encounter
a casual or unexpected convergence
"he still remembers their meeting in Paris"
"there was a brief encounter in the hallway"
3. encounter, coming upon
a casual meeting with a person or thing
4. confrontation, encounter, showdown, face-off
a hostile disagreement face-to-face
"encounters" in the verb sense
1. meet, run into, encounter, run across, come across, see
come together
"I'll probably see you at the meeting"
"How nice to see you again!"
2. find, happen, chance, bump, 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"
3. run into, encounter
be beset by
"The project ran into numerous financial difficulties"
4. meet, encounter, receive
experience as a reaction
"My proposal met with much opposition"
5. meet, encounter, play, take on
contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle
"Princeton plays Yale this weekend"
"Charlie likes to play Mary"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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