(v. t.) To contend for in words or arguments; to strive to maintain by reasoning; to dispute; to contest; to discuss; to argue for and against.
(v. i.) To engage in strife or combat; to fight.
(v. i.) To contend in words; to dispute; hence, to deliberate; to consider; to discuss or examine different arguments in the mind; -- often followed by on or upon.
(v. t.) A fight or fighting; contest; strife.
(v. t.) Contention in words or arguments; discussion for the purpose of elucidating truth or influencing action; strife in argument; controversy; as, the debates in Parliament or in Congress.
(v. t.) Subject of discussion.
Example Sentences:
(1) In a debate in the House of Commons, I will ask Britain, the US and other allies to convert generalised offers of help into more practical support with greater air cover, military surveillance and helicopter back-up, to hunt down the terrorists who abducted the girls.
(2) In attacking the motion to freeze the licence fee during today's Parliamentary debate the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, criticised the Tory leader.
(3) Amid the acrimony of the failed debate on the Malaysia Agreement, something was missed or forgotten: many in the left had changed their mind.
(4) The first experiment gave good results, although only one participant had any previous experience of hinge axis location, and it is debatable whether or not this experience is necessary before satisfactory results can be obtained.
(5) She said that even as she approached the gates, she was debating with the boy’s father whether to let the first-grader enter.
(6) But because current donor contributions are not sufficient to cover the thousands of schools in need of security, I will ask in the commons debate that the UK government allocates more.
(7) In a poll before the debate, 48% predicted that Merkel, who will become Europe's longest serving leader if re-elected on 22 September, would emerge as the winner of the US-style debate, while 26% favoured Steinbruck, a former finance minister who is known for his quick-wit and rhetorical skills, but sometimes comes across as arrogant.
(8) Conservative commentators responded with fury to what they believed was inappropriate meddling at a crucial moment in the town hall debate.
(9) The citizenship debate is tawdry, conflated and ultimately pointless | Richard Ackland Read more On Wednesday, the prime minister criticised lawyers for backing terrorists.
(10) While there has been almost no political reform during their terms of office, there have been several ambitious steps forward in terms of environmental policy: anti-desertification campaigns; tree planting; an environmental transparency law; adoption of carbon targets; eco-services compensation; eco accounting; caps on water; lower economic growth targets; the 12th Five-Year Plan; debate and increased monitoring of PM2.5 [fine particulate matter] and huge investments in eco-cities, "clean car" manufacturing, public transport, energy-saving devices and renewable technology.
(11) All 17 candidates are going to be participating in debate night and I think that’s a wonderful opportunity Reince Priebus Republican party officials have defended the decision to limit participation, pointing out that the chasing pack will get a chance to debate separately before the main event.
(12) "Medical professionals have perhaps been the least involved [of all sectors] in debates and discussions around abortion, and anti-choice groups have very effectively carried out a deliberate strategy of targeting and influencing health professionals.
(13) The only thing the media will talk about in the hours and days after the debate will be Trump’s refusal to say he will accept the results of the election, making him appear small, petty and conspiratorial.
(14) Opposition to legal abortion takes magical thinking and a lack of logic | Jessica Valenti Read more The only female Republican candidate for the White House has doubled down on her restrictive position over reproductive rights since a successful debate performance .
(15) Although the debate in the US has led to some piecemeal reforms – including the USA Freedom Act and modest policy changes – many of the most intrusive government surveillance programs remain largely intact.
(16) The debate certainly hit upon a larger issue: the tendency for people in positions of social and cultural power to tell the stories of minorities for them, rather than allowing minority communities to speak for themselves.
(17) On the mothers' internet forum Mumsnet, 44% of women who voted in a post-debate survey said they were now thinking of voting Lib Dem, compared with 23% three weeks ago.
(18) Both a voter and Cooper repeatedly asked him if he stood by his comments in the last Republican presidential debate when he insisted that was the case.
(19) Before the debate, most of our focus group expected David Cameron to win narrowly “because he’s best at debates”.
(20) The treatment of hypertension in pregnancy has been a matter of debate, but the treatment of choice in late pregnancy is delivery.
Polemics
Definition:
(n.) The art or practice of disputation or controversy, especially on religious subjects; that branch of theological science which pertains to the history or conduct of ecclesiastical controversy.
Example Sentences:
(1) My idea in Orientalism was to use humanistic critique to open up the fields of struggle, to introduce a longer sequence of thought and analysis to replace the short bursts of polemical, thought-stopping fury that so imprison us.
(2) Byatt said that, while she had not wished to present an allegory or a polemic, the story was impelled by a profound sense of gloom about the environment and indeed about all human endeavours.
(3) Anyone who allows himself to stoop to such polemics shows that they are running out of proper arguments”, said Jürgen Hardt, the foreign affairs spokesman for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
(4) i lent brett ratner my 2nd (of 2) parms dorz cos he wantd 2 impress women and I was worrid he mite get bbq sauce on it agen lol You've said your films are intended as "polemical statements against the American 'barrel down' cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator."
(5) As one of the disenchanted Labour voters described by MacAskill, I have had many polemics put my way: the most persuasive have been George Galloway's "Just Say Naw" and a speech on the implications of Scottish independence for business by Rupert Soames, CEO of the Scottish firm Aggreko.
(6) Moore had contributed an essay on women's anger to an anthology of polemical writing.
(7) As well as appearing on TV, she writes a weekly column in the Sunday Fairfax papers, a column on The Drum, and books ranging from a Quarterly Essay on Malcolm Turnbull to the popular culture polemic The Wife Drought.
(8) Hitting back at the harsh criticism he has received in recent days, including depictions of him in the Greek press as an IS terrorist who had beheaded Greece, he said: “I have such a thick skin that it can’t derail me, but what does torment me is distorting polemic that completely misses the point.” Soon afterwards Sahra Wagenknecht of the far-left Linke, accused him of being a “cutback Taliban”.
(9) It is suggested that if change in the biomedical system is a goal of a critical clinical anthropology, the impact will be greater where objective and broad causal connections can be demonstrated with minimal use of rote or polemic arguments.
(10) And the groundbreaking forays into popular culture - his examinations of the British seaside postcard and boys' comics - and the revered polemical essays appeared in periodicals such as Horizon and Polemic.
(11) But Florian Philippot, Le Pen’s closest adviser, dismissed the accusations as “a campaign polemic”, describing Jalkh as “serious, moderate … a patriot and an honest man”.
(12) Based on considerable personal experience and a rigorous and critical analysis of case-reports, a highly polemic subject is discussed.
(13) I do not wish to engage in polemics regarding the relative worth of behavioral and psychodynamic theories of treatment, but this paper reflects my own misgivings about certain aspects of the token economy and is concerned more with the quality of the ward atmosphere it creates than with specific behavior changes.
(14) In one of the more conspiracy theorising polemics I have read in some while, he described this wealth-creating, free-trading, economic stimulus simply as "a monstrous assault on democracy" by institutions, "which have been captured by the corporations they are supposed to regulate".
(15) Since antiquity, puerperal mental disorders have always been the field of polemics concerning the different possible etiopathogenic hypothesis.
(16) Often the boundary between experience and polemic gets blurred.
(17) They range from the generally accepted to the frankly polemical and the merely heuristic.
(18) Walden aims at conversion, and Thoreau's polemical purpose gives it an energy and drive missing in the meanders of the sole other book he saw into publication during his short lifetime, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849).
(19) The main polemic is over whether it is most useful to evaluate the total estsrogens or the individual fractions.
(20) It is clear that polemic is not sufficient and that consensus practices can only be based upon firm scientifically acquired data and detailed discussion of the options by those most intimately involved.