Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Language: French
Origin: combattre, from Vulgar Latin combattere, from Latin com- ( COM-) + battuere 'to hit'

combat

2 verb
     
com‧bat2 past tense and past participle combated, present participle combating [transitive]
to try to stop something bad from happening or getting worse - used especially in news reports
combat inflation/crime/racism etc
To combat inflation, the government raised interest rates.
new strategies for combatting terrorism
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary