Meaning of Challenger | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A space shuttle, named after HMS Challenger (1858), destroyed on January 28, 1986 with loss of its seven-member crew.
2. A steam locomotive of the 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement.
3. One who challenges.
4. Alternative letter-case form of challenger (“a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals”).
   also, alt-of, attributive
5. One who confronts or opposes; a confronter, an opposer.
6. One who plays against the current champion of a contest or game in hopes of winning and becoming the new champion.
7. One who brings a legal claim; a claimant, a plaintiff; also, one who accuses; an accuser.
   obsolete
8. Often in the form Challenger: a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
   also, attributive

Equivalents

Examples

“[C]ertainly there is no true orator who is not a hero. […] He is challenger and must answer all comers.”

“Debates are often unpredictable, but it is especially hard to game out how this debate featuring a moderate standard-bearer and a liberal challenger will unfold and how people will process it. Hundreds of thousands of viewers, if not millions, will have been personally affected by Sunday, as public gathering spaces are shuttered, schools are closed and on Thursday the stock market plunged by the largest percentage in decades (it snapped back upward on Friday).”

“Candidates for a state senate seat race in South Florida in which a spoiler appeared to help Republican challenger Ileana Garcia unseat incumbent Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez.”

“challengers of traditional attitudes”

“The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated.”

“One child stood as king of the hill, and tried to withstand the pushes and shoves of his challengers.”

“Roſ[alind]. Young man, haue you challeng'd Charles the VVraſtler? / Orl[ando]. No faire Princeſſe: he is the general challenger, I come but in as others do, to try vvith him the ſtrength of my youth.”

“Novv vvhen they vvere come before Appius, ſitting judicially upon his tribunall ſeate, the plaintife or challenger aforeſaid, declareth againſt her, […]”

“American Locomotive Company, which introduced the 4-6-6-4 (on Union Pacific) in 1936, constructed more Challengers than any other builder and, in Northern Pacific's Z-8 class, built the heaviest. NP owned 48 4-6-6-4's in three classes.”

CEFR level