Gladiator

Definitions

1. A person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.
   Ancient-Rome
2. A disputant in a public controversy or debate.
   broadly
3. A professional boxer.
4. Synonym of heelwalker (“Any of the order Mantophasmatodea of carnivorous, wingless insects that superficially resemble a cross between praying mantises and phasmids.”).

Equivalents

Examples

“My mother prepared herself for the evening with the same somber deliberateness of the gladiators in Spartacus.”

“And it's because something of the mundanely manual still adheres to darts that the players' heroic walk⟳ of honour from the green room to the oche is so incongruous. The fanfare begins, the strobes go wild, the crowds roar, hostesses wearing the sort⟳ of tinsel dresses that drove me crazy when I was eighteen escort the gladiator into the arena, only he's not a gladiator, he's a plumber.”

CEFR level