RIVAL :  n : the contestant you hope to defeat; "he had respect for his rivals"; "he wanted to know what the competition was doing" [syn: challenger, competitor, competition, contender] v 1: be equal to in quality or ability; "Nothing can rival cotton for durability"; "Your performance doesn't even touch that of your colleagues"; "Her persistence and ambition only matches that of her parents" [syn: equal, touch, match] 2: be the rival of, be in competition with; "we are rivaling for first place in the race"

admit of comparison, adversary, adversative, adverse, alien, amount to, antagonist, antagonistic, antagonize, anti, antipathetic, antithetic, approach, attempt, balance, battle, battler, be commensurable, be comparable, beat against, beat up against, belligerent, belted knight, bickerer, blade, bravo, brawler, break even, breast the wave, buck, buffet, buffet the waves, bully, bullyboy, challenge, challenge comparison, clashing, close with, coequal, combat, combatant, come to, come up to, compare, compare to, compare with, compeer, compete, compete with, competing, competition, competitive, competitor, con, conflicting, contend, contend against, contend with, contender, contest, contestant, contradictory, contrary, cope, correspond, correspond to, corrival, counter, counterpart, cross, cutthroat, disaccordant, disputant, dissentient, ditto, draw, duelist, emulate, emulator, emulous, enemy, enforcer, entrant, equal, equipollent, equivalent, even, even off, fellow, fencer, feuder, fight, fight against, fighter, fighting cock, foilsman, fractious, gamecock, gladiator, goon, gorilla, grapple with, hatchet man, hood, hoodlum, hooligan, hostile, in competition, in rivalry, inimical, jockey, join battle with, jouster, keep pace with, knight, knot, labor against, like, match, match up with, mate, measure up, measure up to, meet, militant, militate against, negative, noncooperative, not compare with, obstinate, offer resistance, opponent, oppose, opposed, opposing, opposite, opposite number, opposition, oppositional, oppositive, oppugnant, outvie, overthwart, parallel, partake of, peer, perverse, player, plug-ugly, quarreler, reach, recalcitrant, refractory, reluct, reluctate, repugnant, resemble, rioter, rivaling, rough, rowdy, ruffian, run abreast, run to, sabreur, scrapper, scuffler, squabbler, stack up with, stem the tide, strive, strive against, strong arm, strong-arm man, strong-armer, struggle, struggle against, struggle with, struggler, swashbuckler, sword, swordplayer, swordsman, take on, test one another, the field, thug, tie, tilter, touch, tough, try, tussler, twin, uncooperative, unfavorable, unfriendly, unpropitious, vie, vie with, vier, vying, wrangler,

RIVAL : \Ri"val\, n. [F. rival (cf. It. rivale), L. rivales two neigbors having the same brook in common, rivals, fr. rivalis belonging to a brook, fr. rivus a brook. Cf. Rivulet, Rete.] 1. A person having a common right or privilege with another; a partner. [Obs.] If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. --Shak. 2. One who is in pursuit of the same object as another; one striving to reach or obtain something which another is attempting to obtain, and which one only can posses; a competitor; as, rivals in love; rivals for a crown. Note: ``Rivals, in the primary sense of the word, are those who dwell on the banks of the same stream. But since, as all experience shows, there is no such fruitful source of coutention as a water right, it would continually happen that these occupants of the opposite banks would be at strife with one another in regard of the periods during which they severally had a right to the use of the stream . . . And thus 'rivals' . . . came to be used of any who were on any grounds in more or less unfriendly competition with one another.'' --Trench. Syn: Competitor; emulator; antagonist.

RIVAL : \Ri"val\, a. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions. The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen. --Macaulay.

RIVAL : \Ri"val\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rivaledor Rivalled; p. pr. & vb. n. Rivaling or Rivalling.] 1. To stand in competition with; to strive to gain some object in opposition to; as, to rival one in love. 2. To strive to equal or exel; to emulate. To rival thunder in its rapid course. --Dryden.

RIVAL : \Ri"val\, v. i. To be in rivalry. [Obs.] --Shak.